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HILLIAED, GRAY 8c CO. 
1835. 



LIVES 
THE TWELVE, APOSTLES, 

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED J 

•a-^- a life 0,-V- ^^ <*T 

JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

^ 

T 



By F. W. P. GREENWOOD, 

JUNIOR MINISTER OF KINGS CHAPEL, BOSTON. 



4 ^ " , 

" And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them 
the names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb." 

Rev. xxi. 14. 

" The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee." 

Te Deim. 



1S71 



SECOND EDITION. 









% 


BOSTON: 






HILLIARD, GRAY 


& 


CO. 


1835. 













• % 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by 
Hilliard, Gray &. Co., in the Clerk's office of the District 
Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



JZJJJ 



CAMBRIDGE PRESS: 

METCALF, TORRY,AND BALLOU. 






*> 
^ 



PREFACE 

TO THE SECOND EDITION 



The present edition of the " Lives of the 
Twelve Apostles," will, it is hoped, be found an 
improvement on the first. The work has been 
considerably enlarged, and its form has, in some 
respects, been changed. A Life of John the 
Baptist is now prefixed to the other lives, and a 
Life of the apostle Matthias is added at the 
close. The Notes, which, in the first edition, 
were printed at the end of the volume, have 
either been incorporated with the text, or printed 
in their several places as foot-notes. Authorities 
have been reconsulted, and critical conclusions 
reconsidered. 

It has been suggested to the author, from more 
than one respected source, that lives of Saint 
Paul, and of the Evangelists Mark and Luke, 



IV PREFACE. 

would be a desirable addition to the biographies 
of the Apostolic Twelve. But he has been fear- 
ful of injuring thereby the unity of his group — 
that group which immediately surrounded our 
Lord, and whose lives are connected with his 
in the Gospel accounts; and he has therefore 
thought it more advisable to limit himself to the 
insertion of a life of the great Forerunner, which 
properly precedes the other histories. 

In the Notes to the first edition, the author 
had named the days on which the Apostles are 
severally commemorated in the Western Church, 
and had also given the Collects, or short, com- 
prehensive prayers, which are appropriated to 
those days, in the Liturgy of the Church of 
England. To those Collects he has now sub- 
joined some pieces of selected poetry, chiefly 
from late works of Bishop Mant and of Keble, 
with a view of increasing the religious impression 
of the volume, and adding somewhat of a devo- 
tional to its scriptural and biographical character. 
They who do not attach any peculiar sacredness 
to the days which are set apart to the Apostles 



PREFACE. V 

and Saints by some churches, may yet have their 
affections profitably engaged, at any convenient 
periods, by a devotional application of those lives 
and examples, which have been bequeathed to 
the church universal. 

The same sentiments of affection, respect, and 
duty, which prompted the author to dedicate the 
first edition of these " Lives " to " The Mem- 
bers of the Society worshipping at King's 
Chapel," induce him to inscribe the volume in 
its present form to the same friends, with the 
hope that it may prove more deserving than be- 
fore of their acceptance and approbation. 

Francis W. P. Greenwood. 
October 4, 1835. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Life of John the Baptist, 1 

Lives of the Apostles. The Twelve, . . 29 

Simon Peter, 42 

Andrew, 80 

James the Greater, 86 

John, 99 

Philip, 119 

Bartholomew, . 124 

Thomas, 130 

Matthew, 146 

James the Less, 158 

Jude, 171 

Simon Zelotes, . . . . . . 176 

Judas Iscariot, 179 

Matthias, .200 

Concluding Remarks, 205 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

The order of names which follows, differs from that of the above 
list, and is the order in which the days occur in the calendar. 

Saint Andrew's Day ; November 30, . . . 221 
Saint Thomas's Day; December 21, ... 223 
Saint John the Evangelist's Day ; December 27, . 225 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Saint Matthias's Day ; February 24, . . 229 

Saint Philip and Saint James's Day ; May 1, 231 

Saint John the Baptist's Day ; June 24, . ■ 233 

Saint Peter's Day ; June 29, ... 235 

Saint James's Day ; July 26, 240 

Saint Bartholomew's Day ; August 24, . . 243 
Saint Matthew's Day ; September 21, . . .245 
Saint Simon and Saint Jude's Day ; October 28, 250 



LIFE 



OF 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



As John the Baptist presented himself to his 
countrymen as the herald and precursor of Jesus, 
and was acknowledged by Jesus to be so, and 
as his history is remarkably connected with the 
early part of the history of our Lord, the notices 
which are given of him in the Scriptures possess 
unusual interest. It is my purpose to examine 
these notices in their order, so as to present, as 
far as the materials will permit, a continuous 
view of his life. This life will naturally precede 
the lives of those who were afterwards sent by 
the Messiah to publish his laws and doctrines, as 
John was sent from above to be his harbinger. 

In the first chapter of Luke's gospel, we have 
an account of the particulars attending the birth 
of the Baptist. His father was a priest by the 
name of Zacharias ; and his mother, whose name 
was Elizabeth, " was of the daughters of Aaron ; " 

B 



a JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

so that he was by birth of the order of priesthood, 
and on the side of both father and mother, of 
sacerdotal descent. He was the child of their 
old age. His father Zacharias was, as is said 
by the evangelist, " of the course of Abia." To 
understand this expression, we must recur to the 
fact, stated in the First book of Chronicles, that 
David divided the descendants of Aaron into 
twenty-four orders, named after the chief men 
among them, who should attend to the service of 
the temple in rotation. The eighth of these 
orders, or courses, was that of Abijah, or Abia, 
and the one to which Zacharias belonged. 

What was more honorable to the parents of 
John than their official and hereditary sanctity, 
they were really holy and virtuous people. " They 
were both righteous before God, walking in all 
the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, 
blameless." No parentage could be more fit for 
the forerunner of the holy Jesus. 

As Zacharias was officiating in the temple in 
his turn, or "in the order of his course," an 
angel appeared to him, predicted the birth of his 
son, and declared that his name should be John, 
which means, in the Hebrew language, the gift 
or grace of God. He added that his birth would 
be the cause of rejoicing to many ; that he would 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 3 

be " great in the sight of the Lord ; " that he 
would be singularly abstemious, and " filled with 
the holy spirit;" and that he should go before 
the Lord " in the spirit and power of Elias." It 
was a general expectation among the Jews, that 
the prophet Elias, or Elijah, was to reappear on 
earth in person, to announce the arrival of the 
Messiah ; and this expectation was founded on 
one or two passages of the book of Malachi, such 
as, " Behold I will send my messenger, and he 
shall prepare the way before me ;" and still more 
explicitly, " Behold I will send you Elijah the 
prophet before the coming of the great and 
dreadful day of the Lord." The words of the 
angel evidently refer to this prophecy, and at the 
same time imply that the messenger of the Lord, 
who was to precede and announce the Messiah, 
was not to be Elijah himself, according to com- 
mon expectation, but one who should " go before 
him in the spirit and power of Elijah;" one who, 
like Elijah, should be endowed with a perception 
of God's purposes towards mankind, and with 
power to operate on their minds, to persuade 
them to repentance, and thus " to make ready a 
people prepared for the Lord." 

In due time John was born ; and his birth took 
place six months before that of Jesus, whose 



4 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

mother Mary was the cousin of his mother Eliza- 
beth. As the former event may be considered 
the dawn which betokened the rising of the Sun 
of righteousness, we perceive the propriety of its 
being recorded by Luke in the beginning of his 
gospel. The circumcision of John took place, 
as was customary among the Jews, on the eighth 
day after his birth ; and on this day his father 
Zacharias recovered the use of his speech, of 
which he had been deprived, as a sign, of the 
truth of what the angel had told him. " He 
spake, and praised God ; " and his joy burst forth 
in the words of that sublime and holy song, be- 
ginning " Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for 
he hath visited and redeemed his people." We 
are then told that " the child grew, and waxed 
strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the 
day of his showing unto Israel." The meaning 
of this last clause is not that John, in his early 
childhood, lived alone in a wilderness, but that 
he passed his days, till he was called to the exer- 
cise of his mission, in the privacy of his parents' 
abode, which was in the deserts or hill-country 
of Judea, as we are informed in the former part 
of the same chapter. As Hebron was the capital 
of this hill-country, and was, moreover, one of the 
cities appointed for the residence of the priests, 



JOHN THE BAPTIST, 5 

it was probably the place where John passed his 
childhood with his parents, as Jesus did with his. 
Its distance south of Jerusalem was between 
twenty and thirty, and in the same direction from 
Nazareth about seventy miles. 

Nothing more is related of John, till we hear 
of his call to commence his great work. The 
period of his entrance on his ministry is marked 
with great precision. " Now in the fifteenth year 
of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate 
being governor of Judea, and Herod being te- 
trarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch 
of Iturea and of the region of Trachonitis, and 
Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and 
Caiaphas being the high priests — the word of 
God came unto John the son of Zacharias, in the 
wilderness. And he came into all the country 
about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance 
for the remission of sins." The call came to him 
in the wilderness, or thinly peopled hill-country, 
where his family resided, and beginning there, he 
advanced towards Jerusalem, confining himself to 
the same retired portions of Judea, and preaching 
to those who resorted to him in increasing num- 
bers, till he reached Bethabara beyond Jordan, a 
few miles from the holy city, where he held his 
principal station. All this district of country 



6 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

bordered upon the sacred river Jordan, in which 
he baptized those who were affected by his 
preaching, and enlisted themselves among his 
disciples. Bethabara was probably near a fordable 
part of the river, as the meaning of the word is 
" the house of the passage." It was therefore a 
convenient place of resort for his hearers. 

The great doctrine which the Baptist preached, 
as preparatory to the Redeemer's kingdom, was 
repentance. "In those days," says the account 
of Matthew, " came John the Baptist, preaching 
in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent 
ye ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For 
this is he that was spoken of by the prophet 
Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the 
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make 
his path straight." His custom, which was not a 
new one among the Jews, was to baptize those who 
believed his warnings, and joined themselves to 
him as converts or disciples, that he might signify 
the cleansing and renewing of mind which was 
necessary for the reception of the new state of 
things which was approaching, as well as essen- 
tial to the repentance which he himself so ear- 
nestly insisted on. And the same meaning of 
moral preparation is to be attributed to the pro- 
phetic metaphors of filling the valleys and bringing 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 7 

low the mountains and hills, making the crooked 
ways straight, and the rough smooth, which were 
duties belonging to the herald and forerunner of 
the anointed Prince of peace. 

The appearance and habits of living which 
were assumed and practised by John, while he 
was preaching and baptizing, and to which he 
had no doubt accustomed himself from tender 
age, were consistent with his character as the 
representative of Elijah. His clothing was coarse, 
and his food such as the deserts yielded. " And 
the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, 
and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his 
meat was locusts and wild honey." * Compare 
this acount of Matthew, with the description 
given in the second book of Kings, of Elijah. 
" What manner of man," inquired Ahaziah of his 
messengers, "was he who came up to meet you, 
and told you these words? And they answered 
him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle 
of leather about his loins. And he said, it is Eli- 
jah the Tishbite." t This was probably a usual 
kind of dress with the ancient prophets, especially 
in times of distress or great excitement. The in- 
sect called the locust was allowed as food by the 
Levitical law, J and travellers assure us that it is 

* Matt. iii. 4. f 2 Kings, i. 8. J Lev. xi. 22. 



8 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

eaten in eastern countries at the present day, and 
that the bees of Palestine still deposite their stores 
in the holes of the rocks in such abundance, that 
the honey is sometimes seen flowing down the 
surface. 

Living in this severe manner, and proclaiming 
on the wild banks of the Jordan the approach of 
the Messiah's reign and Israel's redemption, John 
drew universal regard, and the desert became 
populous around him. "Then went out to him 
Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round 
about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, 
confessing their sins." * I have already said that 
the ceremony of baptism, or washing with water, 
was not new among the Jews, as significant of 
change and renewal, on the reception of converts 
or disciples to proposed forms of faith or discipline. 
It may be added, that it was a current opinion 
among the Jews, founded as usual on prophecy, 
that the forerunner of the Messiah, or Messiah 
himself, or both, would use the form of baptism, 
when the time of Israel's redemption should come. 
A passage in Zechariah which was thought to 
warrant this opinion, is at least poetically descrip- 
tive of the office of John at his station of Bethabara 
beyond Jordan. "In that day there shall be a 

* Matt. iii. 5. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



9 



fountain opened to the house of David and to the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for unclean- 
ness." * 

The character of John's preaching and instruc- 
tions is set forth with a great degree of particu- 
larity, in the account which is given by Luke of 
his exhortations and advice to various classes of 
persons; from which it plainly appears that his 
doctrine was of a direct and practical kind, and 
that the preparation which he inculcated was of 
a moral nature entirely. He warned the people 
not to rely with their wonted pride on their being 
the children of Abraham, but to "bring forth 
fruits worthy of repentance." He was surprised 
to see the Pharisees and Sadducees resorting to 
him ; because they were so filled with this pride, 
and so confident in the merit of their ceremonial 
righteousness. He was surprised that they should 
come to his baptism, which was one of real and 
practical, not formal or mystical repentance. " O 
generation of vipers ! " he exclaimed, " children 
of deceit and hypocrisy ! who hath warned you 
to flee from the wrath to come?" 

When " the people asked him, saying, What 
shall we do then ? " he indicated by his answer 
what was the nature of those fruits which were 

* Zech. xiii. 1. 



10 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

worthy of repentance, those deeds which proved a 
true change of heart and mind; — he said unto 
them, " He that hath two coats, let him impart to 
him that hath none ; and he that hath meat, let 
him do likewise." The great duty of benevolence 
is here enforced, and illustrated by one of its 
simple modes, and exalted in clear superiority 
above the works of the law. 

And when the publicans, or tax-gatherers, came 
to be baptized, " and said unto him, Master, what 
shall we do? he said unto them, Exact no more 
than that which is appointed you." He knew 
their peculiar temptations, and their besetting sin, 
arising from the circumstances of their situation, 
and he therefore warned them against the spirit 
of extortion, and exhorted them to honesty, mode- 
ration and mercy. 

" And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, 
saying, And what shall we do ? And he said 
unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse 
any falsely; and be content with your wages." 

This is all quite practical and plain, and shows 
that the eremitical Baptist, severe as he was in 
his manners, solitary in his haunts, and striking 
in his whole appearance and deportment, was yet 
simple and direct in his teaching, and did not 
affect to move in a cloud of mysticism. It denotes 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 11 

also, that though he may have had, on some 
points, mistaken views of the Messiah's king- 
dom, and did not embrace the whole extent of 
its spirituality, yet he was well aware that it was 
to be a moral reformation, without which there 
could be no national deliverance, and that all who 
would be its subjects and partake of its blessings, 
could secure their place only by repentance and 
righteousness of life. This was one proof of the 
truth and divinity of his mission. Excited as the 
people were by the mere proclamation of the 
coming deliverer, he made no further use of the 
excitement than to direct it to moral ends. He 
knew that this was the limit of his commission. 
He said and did nothing to rouse the minds of his 
hearers to any hostile manifestations ; but whether 
they were Pharisees, Sadducees, publicans or 
soldiers, he only exhorted them to true repentance 
and the performance of the charitable and peaceful 
duties. Here also we may observe a remarkable, 
and I may say a miraculous conformity between 
the spirit of the Baptist's preaching, and the spirit 
of the Messiah's religion as it was afterwards 
developed. There is no appearance of any 
intimacy or collusion between them. They lived 
seventy miles apart from each other, the one in 
Nazareth of Galilee, and the other in Hebron of 



12 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



Judea; and therefore, though related to each 
other, had probably met but seldom, up to the 
time of the public appearance of John as a 
preacher and prophet. There is evidently an 
unprepared and undesigned agreement between 
the introduction and the perfection of the new 
dispensation; a spiritual agreement which could 
not have existed between two uninspired Jews, 
nurtured in the prejudices and traditions of their 
nation. The true light was preceded by the 
true witness. The dawning was a pure and 
correct though faint likeness of the day. 

Distinguished, however, as John the Baptist 
had become by his austere mode of life, by his 
prophetic dress and bearing, by his bold, earnest, 
and authoritative teaching, by the crowds who 
appeared as his baptized disciples, and by his 
annunciation of the ardently longed for Messiah, 
the people began to suppose that he might be the 
Messiah himself. If John had been only playing 
a part, and been under the influence of a worldly 
ambition, he might easily have turned this idea to 
his own advantage and personal exaltation. But 
he maintained his own proper place and duty, 
humbly and strictly. " And as the people were 
in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts 
of John, whether he were the Christ or not ; John 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 13 

answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize 
you with water ; but one mightier than I cometh, 
the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to 
unlose; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost 
and with fire." * John allowed that he performed 
the office of baptism, as a teacher and reformer, 
but declared that it was only introductory and 
emblematic, only a baptism with water; while 
he who was soon to be manifested, the real 
Christ, to be whose servant he was himself un- 
worthy, would baptize with a far more thorough, 
searching, and efficacious baptism, with a spiritual 
and purifying baptism, with the Holy Ghost and 
with fire. In using this latter expression, he 
perhaps had in his mind the passage of Malachi, 
which says, "And he shall sit as a refiner and 
purifier of silver ; and he shall purify the sons of 
Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they 
may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteous- 
ness." John, however, changes the metaphor, 
and represents the Messiah as a husbandman, 
with his winnowing fan in his hand, thoroughly 
separating the wheat on his floor from the chaff, 
gathering the former into his granery, and burning 
the latter with fire. 

* Luke iii. 15. 



14 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

And now the time arrives, when he who was to 
come, appears. " Then cometh Jesus from Galilee 
to Jordan, unto John, to be baptized of him." 
From the retirement of distant Galilee, where he 
had passed his youth in study and labor, and in 
docile subservience to his parents, Jesus, having 
entered upon his thirtieth year, which was the 
age of induction into the priestly office among the 
Jews,* travelled to Bethabara, and presented 
himself to his relative to be baptized. How 
eventful was this meeting between the son of 
Elizabeth and the son of Mary! They whose 
births had been announced by the angel Gabriel, 
and who had since lived apart in holy seclusion 
and quiet duty for thirty years, were now brought 
together by the call of God in the presence of 
assembled multitudes, and this was the first public 
interview between the commissioned herald and 
the anointed prince, between the messenger and 
the Redeemer. When John heard the request of 
Jesus to be baptized, he at first forbad, or refused 
him ; for though he was not yet certified of his 
being the Christ, yet he was probably acquainted 
with the wonders attending his birth, and with 
his life of entire purity and holiness. Therefore 
he meekly remonstrated, " I have need to be 

* Numbers iv. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 15 

baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? " But 
Jesus, who would commence his ministry with a 
public and solemn ordinance, and regardful, per- 
haps, of the usage by which the sons of Aaron 
were washed with water before they commen- 
ced the functions of the priesthood,* answered, 
" Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it becometh us 
to fulfil all righteousness." Thus urged, or, it 
may be, commanded, John could no longer hesi- 
tate, and the two moved down through the silent 
crowd into the expectant stream, and its waters, 
more consecrated than consecrating, were poured 
on the Saviour's head. 

" Old Jordan smiled, receiving such high pay 
For those small pains obedient he had spent, 
Making his waters guard the dryed way 

Through wonders when to Canaan Israel went ; 
Nor does he envy now Pactolus' streams, 
Or eastern floods, whose paths are paved with gems."t 

As Jesus came up from the river, the heavens 
were opened to declare his mission to the earth, 
the spirit of God descended with a dove-like 
motion upon him, and a voice was heard pro- 
nouncing, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased." From this moment the ministry 

* Exodus xxix. 4. f Joseph Beaumont. 



16 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



of Jesus commenced, and, " being full of the Holy 
Ghost, he returned from Jordan, and was led by 
the Spirit into the wilderness," * where he fasted 
and was tempted. 

As we know that Jesus was thirty years of age 
when he began his ministry, and that this was the 
age prescribed by the Jewish law as the proper 
time for the commencement of sacred functions, 
it is probable that John began his ministry at the 
same age, and being six months older than Jesus, 
we may draw the conclusion that he had been 
six months preaching and baptizing, when that 
manifestation of the Messiah took place which 
was the great end of his baptism. 

At the expiration of our Saviour's sojourn in 
the wilderness, he returned to Bethabara, and 
took up his abode in that neighbourhood. About 
the same time, the great council of the Jews, 
moved by the celebrity of John, and the surmises 
of the people concerning him, and being yet 
ignorant of the appearance and claims of Jesus, 
sent a formal deputation to the Baptist, to ascertain 
what he was, or assumed to be. " And this," 
says the evangelist John,f " is the record," or 
rather the testimony, or free profession, " of John, 
when the Jews sent priests and Levites from 

* Luke iv. 1. f John i. 19. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



17 



Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou 1 And he 
confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am 
not the Christ." With decided and earnest re- 
iteration he refused the kingly title. " And they 
asked him, What then ? Art thou Elias 1 And 
he saith,^ I am not." Though he did come in 
the spirit and power of Elijah, yet as he was 
aware that they intended to inquire whether he 
was Elijah himself, according to their notions, 
restored to earth to precede the Messiah, he was 
too honest to reply except in the negative. They 
pursued their interrogatories. " Art thou that 
prophet?" They asked him, in the pertinacity 
of their opinion that some one or another of 
the ancient prophets was to reappear in person, 
whether he was such a prophet. And he still 
answered, " No." Then, having exhausted their 
suppositions, and unwilling to go back to Jerusa- 
lem without some satisfactory answer, they said 
unto him, " Who art thou? that we may give an 
answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou 
of thyself?" The look of the Baptist, the humble 
and yet rapt and holy expression of his counte- 
nance, may be imagined but not described, with 
which he said, in the sublime words of Isaiah, 
and standing in that forest by the flowing waters 
of Jordan, "I am the voice of one crying in the 
c 



18 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord." 
It was immaterial what he was in person, or in 
name; — he was only a voice — a voice in the 
wilderness — but yet a voice proclaiming to the 
world, and proclaiming truly and solemnly — 
" Make straight the way of the Lord." 

As John had denied being either of the per- 
sons suggested, the deputation asked, in surprise, 
and perhaps with anger, why then he undertook 
to perform the important office of baptism. In 
answer, John declared, as he had before, that 
his baptism was but outward and introductory, 
whereas his successor and superior would baptize 
with a holier and mightier baptism. He inti- 
mated, moreover, that this exalted personage, 
though they knew him not, was even then among 
them. And thus he publicly declared to this 
official deputation, the actual arrival of the Mes- 
siah. 

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward 
him, and made him known to the people who 
were then assembled, by that memorable excla- 
mation, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world I " * He then went 
on to say, that this was he, who coming after him 
was yet before him ; that he did not at first know 

* John i. 29. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 19 

that he was the expected Redeemer, but that it 
was to make him manifest to Israel, that he him- 
self had come baptizing with water ; and that on 
the day when he baptized him, he saw and heard 
those heavenly signs, which convinced him that 
he was the Christ, for they were signs which he 
had been taught to look for. " He that sent me 
to baptize with water," said he, " the same said 
unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit 
descending, and remaining on him, the same is 
he who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost."* He 
then adds, " And I saw, and bare record, that 
this is the Son of God." 

Again, the next day after, as he was standing 
with two of his disciples, he looked on Jesus as 
he walked by, and said, " Behold the Lamb of 
God ! " One of these disciples was Andrew, and 
the other probably was John the evangelist ; f and 
these two disciples of the forerunner of Christ, 
were among the first disciples of Christ himself. 

As Jesus was now manifested to Israel, and 
had begun his work, the ministry of John may 
be said to have closed. Still, however, he co- 
operated as he was able with his Master, and 

* John i. 33. 

f When John speaks of a disciple, without mentioning his name, 
he is supposed to intend himself. 



20 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

continued to baptize. Jesus also, or rather his 
disciples, began to baptize in Judea ; and this 
seems to have excited the jealousy of the dis- 
ciples of John, who came and reported it to him.* 
The Baptist at this time had moved higher up 
the river, and " was baptizing in Enon, near to 
Salim, because there was much water there." 
His reply to his disciples hushed their murmur- 
ings, and was another humble, affectionate, and 
manly testimony to the superior dignity v of Jesus. 
He told them, that they themselves would bear 
him witness, that he said he was not the Christ, 
but was sent before him. He declared that as 
the friend of the bridegroom rejoiced to hear the 
bridegroom's voice, so his joy was fulfilled. He 
added those affecting and prophetic words, " He 
must increase, but I must decrease." He then 
spoke at large of the divine truth and glory of 
the mission of Christ, concluding, " He that 
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and 
he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life ; 
but the wrath of God abideth on him." 

" He must increase, but I must decrease." 
Perhaps John did not himself know, how soon 
and how fearfully those words were to be ful- 
filled. He could not have known it; because 



* John iii. 22 ; iv. 2. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 21 

though content to occupy an inferior station, he 
yet looked for some signal and outward display 
of the Messiah's kingdom, to be manifested, 
however, with accompanying holiness, in which 
he might participate, or at least rejoice. But 
this was not to be granted him. His work and 
his life were soon to be ended. 

The popularity of John had attracted the no- 
tice of Herod the tetrarch, surnamed Antipas, 
who was the son of that Herod who had thirty 
years ago commanded the slaughter of the infants 
of Bethlehem. He had sent for the Baptist and 
conversed with him ; not that he was desirous of 
hearing truth, but he was anxious to see so cele- 
brated a person ; and celebrity was, in his eyes, 
as it is in the eyes of many, the great thing, 
whether it appertained to a buffoon or a saint. 
But John reproved him for his marriage with 
Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, which so 
incensed that bad woman, that she caused her 
infatuated husband to throw him into prison ; 
which prison, according to the historian Jose- 
phus, was the fortress of Macherus, on the north- 
ern border of the Dead Sea. Here John was 
doomed to lie inactive — another proof of the 
proverbial fickleness of the favor of great men 
and princes — but still retaining the respect of 



22 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

Herod on account of his integrity and wisdom, 
and causing him to fear on account of his favor 
with the people. Herodias would have killed 
him at first ; " but she could not ; for Herod 
feared John, knowing that he was a just man 
and an holy, and observed him." But she was 
revengeful as she was licentious, and she did not 
forget the Baptist's offence, nor her own deadly 
purpose. 

While John was lying thus in prison, in the 
power of a weak prince, who was under the influ- 
ence of a wicked and dangerous woman, he heard 
of the works of Christ, but heard nothing which 
promised deliverance. Either suffering himself to 
become impatient, at which we need not wonder, 
or desiring to obtain the most definite information 
regarding the proceedings and designs of Jesus, 
he sent unto him two of his disciples, who ad- 
hered to him in all his troubles, to inquire of 
him, " Art thou he that should come, or do we 
look for another?" The answer which Jesus 
returned, while it reminded him of the continued 
testimonials of the Spirit to his mission by mira- 
cles, directed him to the spiritual nature of his 
kingdom, which was evinced by his preaching its 
glad tidings to the poor. And this answer proba- 
bly calmed the troubled though strong mind of 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 23 

John, and satisfied him, that he must now look 
for deliverance to that kingdom alone, " where 
the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary 
are at rest." 

As the messengers of John departed, Jesus 
began to speak concerning him to the surround- 
ing multitude, and rendered a testimony to his 
prophetic mission, which proves his own unshaken 
confidence in the Baptist's integrity. What — he 
asked them — did they go out into the deserts of 
Judea to see ? Not surely the wind-shaken reeds 
on the banks of the ' Jordan ; not a man clothed 
in fine and costly raiment, for men thus clothed 
were to be found in palaces, not deserts ; but 
they went for the purpose of seeing a prophet. 
And he was indeed more than a common pro- 
phet. He had more than a common mission, 
and he had faithfully discharged it. He was 
sent to prepare the way of the Messiah, and 
he had prepared it. Of those who had hith- 
erto been raised up for important purposes by 
the Almighty, none had been greater than John 
the Baptist; — and yet even he entertained so 
inadequate notions of the entire spirituality of 
the Messiah's kingdom, that the least among 
those who should truly receive it, in its pure 
separateness from the world, would be greater 
than he. 



24 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

After bearing this open testimony to the truth 
of John's divine mission, and the reality of his 
prophetic character — a truth and reality which 
were not impaired by the imperfection of his views 
— Jesus closes the discourse by some remarks on 
the effect of his ministry in connexion with his 
own. He speaks of the small number of those 
who had been moved to repentance by John the 
Baptist or by himself, and rebukes the people of 
that age for their perversity in rejecting both, 
although they were so different from each other 
in character and habits. John, being of an au- 
stere and retired deportment, was charged with 
being melancholy or crazed; — they said, "He 
hath a devil." He himself, mingling more freely 
with men of all ranks, and partaking of their 
entertainments, was rudely accused of being " a 
gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of 
publicans and sinners." Such a stubborn and 
petulant generation might be fitly likened to 
children in the streets, who would refuse to join 
with their companions in any games, and would 
neither dance to their festive piping, nor lament 
with them when they imitated the funeral wail. 

It was probably about three months after this 
occurrence, that the revengeful Herodias found 
an opportunity of accomplishing the destruction 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



25 



of the Baptist. As Herod was keeping his birth- 
day, by a magnificent supper which he gave to 
his lords, and captains, she sent her daughter by 
her former husband* into the hall, to dance be- 
fore him and his guests. The exhibition pleased 
the tetrarch to such a degree, that he promised 
with an oath to grant the daughter whatsoever 
she should ask, even to the half of his kingdom. 
The young dancer went out, and reported this to 
her mother, and consulted her with regard to the 
request which she should prefer. Herodias, with- 
out hesitation, and feeling that the dark game 
was now in her own cruel hands, told her daugh- 
ter to ask for the head of John the Baptist ; and, 
in order to make sure of her prey, and guard 
against any humane deception, she added the 
condition, that the head should be brought to 
her on a " charger," or large dish. For such a 
terrible request, the sobered king was wholly 
unprepared, and he was " exceeding sorry." 
Nevertheless, he conceived himself bound by his 
oath — as if an oath could bind the soul to crime 
— and sent an executioner to the prison to do the 
wicked deed. " It was the holy purpose of God," 
says bishop Hall, " that he who had baptized 



* She had a daughter, as Josephus tells us, by the name of Sa- 
lome. 



26 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 



with water, should now be baptized with blood." 
The blameless John — the preacher of repent- 
ance and righteousness — the holy reprover of 
vice, whether a publican's or a king's — was 
beheaded in the prison. " For one minute's pain, 
he is possessed of endless joy, and as he came 
before his Saviour into the world, so is he gone 
before him into heaven." His faithful disciples 
forsook him not, though dead; but came, and 
" took up the body and buried it ; " and then 
went and informed Jesus of what had taken 
place. 

The uneasy conscience of Herod Antipas, 
would not suffer him to forget the image of his 
victim. When he afterwards heard of the fame 
of Jesus, he expressed his belief that it was John 
the Baptist, whom he had beheaded, risen from 
the dead. 

It is not told us in the Gospels, where the Bap- 
tist was buried by his disciples. Less authentic 
accounts state, that " in the time of Julian the 
apostate, his tomb was shown at Samaria, where 
the inhabitants opened it, and burnt part of his 
bones ; while the rest were saved by some Chris- 
tians, who carried them to an abbot of Jerusa- 
lem, named Philip."* 

* Calmet. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 27 

The Roman Church celebrates the martyr- 
dom of John the Baptist on the 29th of August. 
But the day on which he is especially comme- 
morated is the 24th of June, which is kept as 
the day of his nativity ; it being the only nativity, 
besides that of our Saviour, which that Church 
observes. The Apostles and other saints bore 
witness to the truth more especially by their 
deaths, but John more especially by his birth, 
with its concomitants. A kind of perpetual com- 
mentary is thus afforded on the declaration of 
the angel, that " many shall rejoice in his birth." 
And as our Lord's nativity is observed on the 
25th of December, and he was about six months 
younger than John, the 24th of June is properly 
selected as the birth-day of the latter. Here 
again a comment of the same poetical character, 
on another text, has sometimes been noticed. 
The days, which begin to lengthen at the first 
of those dates and to grow shorter at the last, 
point to that saying of the Baptist already quoted 
— " He must increase, but I must decrease." 

But leaving these somewhat fanciful allusions, 
we cannot fail to observe that the life of the 
Baptist, setting forth so clearly and prominent- 
ly the gravity, disinterestedness, courage, and 
purity of his character, is a worthy introduction 



28 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

to the Lives of that " glorious company of the 
Apostles," who praised God as he did, in life and 
death, who surround the Lamb in heaven as they 
did on earth, and whose example enforces that of 
the forerunner, which so earnestly exhorts us to 
" constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, 
and patiently suffer for the truth's sake." Oh, 
for more of that primitive faith and virtue ! for 
more witnesses, more disciples ! 

" Where is the lore the Baptist taught, 

The soul unswerving and the fearless tongue ? 
The much enduring wisdom, sought 

By lonely prayer the haunted rocks among ? 
Who counts it gain 
His light should wane, 
So the whole world to Jesus throng ?" 



LIVES 



OF 



THE APOSTLES. 



THE TWELVE. 

Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Teacher sent 
from God, soon after he commenced his ministry, 
selected twelve men to be his immediate follow- 
ers and confidential disciples. " Now the names 
of the twelve apostles are these ; the first, Simon 
who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother ; 
James the son of Zebedee, and John his 
brother ; Philip, and Bartholomew ; Thomas, 
and Matthew the Publican ; James the son 
of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was 
Thaddeus ; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas 
Iscariot, who also betrayed him." This list of 
the apostles is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, 
who was himself one of them. We are also 



30 



THE TWELVE. 



presented with a similar catalogue in the Gospels 
of Mark and Luke, and in the book of Acts.* 

Why the exact number of twelve was appointed, 
it is more difficult than important to determine. 
Perhaps it was done in compliance with the at- 
tachment of the Jews to that number. Perhaps 
it was with a more particular reference to the 
number of the sons of Jacob, and the tribes of 
which they were the progenitors and founders ; 
" ye also," says Jesus, " shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
Under the new dispensation, ye twelve, whom 
I have chosen, shall exercise the same spiritual 
authority and rule, as did the twelve patriarchs 
under the old dispensation. Ye shall be regarded 

* Matthew's list is from Chap. x. 2, 3, 4. For facility of refer- 
ence, the three remaining lists of the twelve are here subjoined. 

" And Simon he surnamed Peter ; and James the son of Zebedee ; 
and John the brother of James ; and he surnamed them Boanerges, 
which is, The Sons of Thunder ; and Andrew ; and Philip ; and 
Bartholomew ; and Matthew ; and Thomas ; and James the son of 
Alpheus ; and Thaddeus ; and Simon the Canaanite ; and Judas 
Iscariot, who also betrayed him." Mark, iii. 16, 17, 18, 19. 

" Simon, whom he also named Peter ; and Andrew his brother ; 
James and John; Philip and Bartholomew ; Matthew and Thomas ; 
James the son of AJpheus, and Simon called Zelotes ; and Judas 
the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, who also was the traitor." 
Luke, vi. 14, 15, 16. 

" Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, 
Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon 
Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James." Acts, i. 13. 



THE TWELVE. 31 

with the same religious respect. Ye shall give 
laws and ordinances to my people. 

The motives which induced the Master to call 
to himself a select company of disciples, seem to 
be more obvious. It was proper and even neces- 
sary, that he should have some followers in whom 
he might particularly confide, and who should be 
always near him and about him. 

It was needful, in the first place, that he should 
be thus attended, in order that the wonders, 
which he worked in confirmation of the divinity 
of his mission, should be nearly inspected and 
credibly attested. I deem it one of the strongest 
evidences of the truth of our Saviour's miracles, 
that they were performed, not only in sight of 
the multitude, but of a select company, who 
were too familiar with him to be deceived them- 
selves, and too honest to join with him in de- 
ceiving others. Being brought into the midst of 
his operations, they were qualified to judge of 
their reality and integrity, and therefore qualified 
to report them to the world with all the warmth 
of conviction, and all the directness, particularity, 
and authority of constant experience and repeated 
vision. A changing crowd, never composed per- 
haps on any two occasions of the same materials, 
might have been mistaken ; but a band of twelve 



32 THE TWELVE. 

companions could not have been. They were 
fitted, as in no other way they could have been 
so well, for the purpose of declaring to men the 
power from above with which their Master was 
invested ; and that they might be thus prepared, 
was one of his designs in choosing them. " Ye 
are witnesses of these things," said he to the 
eleven, after his resurrection from the dead. 
He evinced a consciousness of innocence and 
sincerity, by admitting so many partakers of his 
secret counsels and his daily deeds y and he 
manifested his wisdom, by securing such an 
irrefragable testimony to the reality of those 
signs from Heaven, which pointed him out as 
truly the Son of God. 

The apostles were selected, in the second 
place, in order that, by reiterated instruction, 
they might become well acquainted with the re- 
ligion which their Master was about to establish 
on the earth. "It is given unto you to know 
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." Jesus 
addressed himself to all who had ears to hear, 
but more particularly to those twelve, who were 
to preach in his name when he should be lifted 
up ; because, through them, mankind were to 
receive the tidings of his salvation. He chose 
them, that he might teach them, so that they in 



THE TWELVE. 33 

turn might teach. His doctrine was so new, so 
different from what men had been used to dig- 
nify with the title of religion, that occasional 
lessons to the multitude, uttered in a confined 
sphere and by a single individual, would hardly 
have served the purpose of rendering it familiar, 
and making it well understood. On this account 
it was more minutely, clearly, and repeatedly 
explained to a select class of pupils, who were 
thus prepared to become instructers themselves, 
and, by penetrating into different and distant 
countries, to disseminate among the nations of 
the earth a religious system, which was at first 
promulgated to the Jewish people, and limited to 
their small inheritance alone. They were called 
apostles, because they were sent out into the 
world.* Before they were sent, they were in- 
structed in the purposes and powers of their 
mission. And how slow they were to compre- 
hend, after all the pains which had been bestowed 
on them, the true nature of the Messiah's kingdom 
and laws, may be read in their own confessions 
of ignorance. It was late, and not till after su- 
pernatural illumination, that they were thoroughly 
initiated in the true meaning of the religion, 

* From the Greek anoartXXw, (apostello,) ' I send.' 
D 



34 THE TWELVE. 

which they were commissioned to preach and to 
spread. This is a fact which forcibly attests, 
not the dulness of the disciples, for their natural 
perceptions were as quick as those of other men, 
but the need there was of their being well 
grounded in the doctrines of Christ, and the 
opposition which existed between the entire sim- 
plicity and spirituality of those doctrines, and 
the grossness of their own expectations and of 
the common opinions of the world. 

It may be well to add to the above' reasons 
for the separation of the twelve, that they were 
brought into a close personal intimacy with the 
Saviour, in order that they might study his ex- 
ample, borrow his spirit, and so receive the image 
of his life that they might reflect it in their own. 
They were both the witnesses and the objects 
and recipients of that divine gentleness, compas- 
sion, and benevolence, which from that fountain 
flowed out all abroad on every thing. They could 
not be so much in his society, without being 
affected by the bland influences of his manners 
and character. It was very probably intended 
that they should be thus affected ; that they 
should behold the temper of Christianity in a 
living form ; its doctrines set forth in conduct ; 
its precepts illustrated by a perpetually corre- 



THE TWELVE. 35 

sponding practice ; and that, beholding this, they 
should be touched by its beauty, and conformed 
in some measure to its likeness, and enabled to 
hold up, not only the description, but the copy of 
it, before the sight of men. It was almost an 
inevitable result of their situation, that they 
should imbibe a portion of the divine life of 
Christianity from their strict fellowship with its 
founder. Like those flowers, which are known 
to drink in the light of the sun while he remains 
above the horizon, and then to give it out in mild 
flashes when the evening shades come on, so the 
disciples, while their Master sojourned with them, 
while the sun of righteousness shone upon them, 
absorbed the beaming excellence of his charac- 
ter, and then, when he left the earth, emitted it 
partially again amidst the moral darkness which 
surrounded them. 

One other purpose, which the connexion of 
the twelve disciples with our Saviour was fitted 
to answer, was, the qualification which it con- 
ferred on them for recording his deeds and words, 
and preserving to posterity the invaluable memo- 
rial. I know not how we, of this age, could 
have trusted implicitly to accounts of the origin 
and true principles of the Christian religion, 
which tradition alone might have brought down 



36 THE TWELVE. 

to us ; nor is it easily conceivable how any per- 
sons could have been better prepared to render 
an authentic, trustworthy, and interesting history 
of our faith, than were those who accompanied 
Jesus through the several scenes of his ministry, 
and immediately succeeded him in publishing 
the Gospel. Accordingly, we find that two, out 
of the four, relations of our Saviour's life and 
death, were written by two of the twelve disci- 
ples ; and that the greater part of the remaining 
books of the New Testament were likewise 
composed by the original apostles, and by that 
distinguished individual whose apostleship was 
bestowed on him directly and miraculously from 
Heaven. It is true, that we are obliged to learn 
from tradition who the writers were of several of 
the sacred books ; but a few facts of this simple 
nature might securely be trusted to its keeping, 
though at the same time it would be an improper 
depository, and an unsafe vehicle for the numer- 
ous occurrences, sentiments, and precepts which 
constitute the Christian system. It is a self- 
evident proposition, that the chosen companions 
of Jesus, having witnessed his miracles, having 
been instructed in his religion, and made inti- 
mately acquainted with his character, were quali- 
fied in the best manner to convert their experience 



THE TWELVE. 37 

into history, and to transmit to the latest ages an 
indubitable standard of Christian truth. 

Such appear to be our Saviour's motives, as 
far as we are authorized to judge of them, in 
nominating his twelve disciples. It becomes a 
matter of no inconsiderable interest to us, to 
know something of the history, to ascertain some- 
thing of the character, of those who were so pe- 
culiarly and so highly distinguished. 

Who were those, in the first place, whom the 
Saviour of men, the Prince of Peace, the Son of 
God, chose out of the whole world, to be his com- 
panions, his friends, his pupils, his witnesses, his 
historians, his apostles? What were their qualities? 
How were they recommended to the notice of 
Jesus ? What were their occupations, their condi- 
tion, education, principles ? It was a remarkable 
station which they were called upon to hold ; so 
near the person, so high in the confidence, of the 
most exalted being who ever appeared on our 
earth. As disciples ourselves, though it may be 
unworthy of the name, and as distant from them 
in merit as we are in time, yet as professed dis- 
ciples of that heavenly Master, we are naturally 
curious to learn more than simply the names of 
our favored predecessors. We would make our- 
selves acquainted with those men who saw, and 



38 THE TWELVE. 

heard, and touched, and lived and conversed 
with, that holy prophet of God, for whom we feel 
a reverence only inferior to that which we enter- 
tain toward Him who sent him. 

And who were those, we would ask, in the 
second place, who were appointed by Jesus Christ 
to publish his religion, and enabled by the assist- 
ance of the holy spirit of God to publish it suc- 
cessfully? Who were those, who, in obedience 
to their Master, went out into all nations, teach- 
ing, converting, and baptizing, and planting the 
parent churches of our faith in learned Greece, 
and lordly Rome, and benighted Africa, and 
among those rude people of the north from whom 
we ourselves are descended? It was no mean 
work in which they were employed. No revolu- 
tion of recorded time can equal it in glory ; for 
thrones were subjected to its power, and the poor 
and humble of the earth were raised by it to an 
elevation far higher than thrones. They, like 
their Lord, were invested with a control over the 
operations of nature ; and more than that, they, 
like him, and by his authority, and with his 
instruction, founded an empire the most broad 
and lasting, which has ever existed, over the 
human mind. Who were they ? As Christians, 
as subjects of that empire, as men amazed, at 



THE TWELVE. 39 

the same time that we are rejoiced, at what we 
have heard and what we behold, we are impelled 
to inquire who they were, who established a 
dominion which has already covered the civilized 
world, and is apparently going on with ever en- 
croaching steps, to spread itself over the whole 
earth? If the lives of any men are interesting, 
theirs must be peculiarly so. They are the great 
reformers, the great conquerors, whose empire 
has been continually increasing and strengthen- 
ing, while the houses and dynasties of heroes 
and kings have risen, and flourished, and passed 
away into forgetfulness and ruin ; the only empire 
which has grown more vigorous and more hopeful 
with age, because the mind and the heart and 
the destiny of man, and the good providence of 
God, are joined to support and perpetuate it. 
Who were these men? 

No elaborate biography, no studied panegyric, 
has portrayed to us the lives and characters of 
the apostles of Christ. In their own condensed 
and simple writings, and in the quite as simple 
book of their Acts, composed by one of their 
associates, we must glean such sketches of them 
as are to be found in connexion with the accounts 
of their Master and the history of their religion ; 
for of themselves, as individuals, they seldom 



40 THE TWELVE. 

think of speaking ; absorbed in their duty and 
devoted to their great work, the idea of self- 
importance or personal fame never seems to have 
entered their minds. We shall not, however, 
esteem them the less, because they were faithful 
to their calling, and sought not the praise and 
honor of men, and postponed their own glory to 
the glory of God. And although our just curi- 
osity may not be gratified by a full and detailed 
portraiture of these eminent men, who remem- 
bered their work, and forgot themselves, yet we 
shall meet with notices enough in the Scriptures 
of the New Testament, to enable us to form for 
ourselves an outline at least of some of their 
lives and characters. Of some of them we shall 
find more abundant accounts than of others ; for 
among them, as well as among mankind in gen- 
eral, there was undoubtedly a-diversity of power, 
which caused some of them to stand out in the 
foreground of action, and others to remain com- 
paratively in shade ; though all of them might 
have been zealous, useful, and efficient, and most 
probably were so. 

Though the sacred writings themselves are the 
only sources of knowledge on this subject, to 
which we may give implicit credence, yet from 
other early documents we may obtain some nar- 



THE TWELVE. 41 

ratives of the latter days of the apostles, which 
are worthy of a good degree of faith. Making 
use, therefore, of such authorities as are within 
my reach, I shall proceed to give some account 
of the twelve disciples of our Lord ; pursuing the 
order in which they are arranged by Matthew, 
only because his catalogue is the first which oc- 
curs in the common collocation of the Gospel 
Histories. 



SIMON PETER. 



Simon, who also received from our Lord the 
appellation of Peter, is invariably the first named 
on all the four lists of the apostles, and was, on 
several accounts, the chief of their company. 
He was one of the first who was called to be a 
disciple ; though not the very first, for Andrew 
his brother appears to have been called before 
him, or at least at the same time with him. He 
was distinguished above the rest by the solemn 
predictions and trusts of his Master, by his un- 
common zeal, and by his strong natural talents. 
He is altogether not only a conspicuous disciple, 
but a remarkable man. The sacred historians 
give us more copious accounts of him than of the 
other apostles, and a distinct conception of his 
character may be gained from what they relate. 

He was, as is stated two or three times in the 
Gospels, the son of John or Jona, who was proba- 
bly, like his children, a fisherman. The family 
had lived in the town of Bethsaida, on the north- 



SIMON PETER. 43 

western side of the lake of Genesareth, otherwise 
called the sea of Tiberias, or the sea of Galilee,* 
where Peter was born ; bat they afterwards seem 
to have removed to the neighbouring city of 
Capernaum, and then consisted, as far as we can 
ascertain, of Simon himself, his brother, and his 
father, his wife, and her mother. When Galilee 
was the scene of our Saviour's ministry, Caper- 
naum was the place of his most constant abode ; 
and it is probable that his resort to it was deter- 
mined in some measure by its being the residence 
of Peter, in whose house he is thought to have 
lodged. 

As we learn from the evangelist John, Simon 
was acquainted with Jesus, and had heard him 
attentively, before he became one of the selected 
disciples. His brother Andrew was already one 
of the disciples of John the Baptist, and was 
standing with a fellow disciple in company with 
their master, at a time when Jesus was passing 
by. Looking upon him as he walked, John, by 
whom he had recently been baptized, exclaimed, 
" Behold the Lamb of God ! " Upon this, the 



* This lake took its name of Galilee from the province in which 
it was situated, and of Genesareth and Tiberias, from towns on its 
coasts. It was more anciently called the Sea of Chinnereth. Numb. 
xxxiv. 11. Josh. xiii. 27. 



44 SIMON PETER. 

two followed him, and, on the invitation of Jesus, 
went with him to his dwelling-place, and abode 
with him that day. Convinced of the justice of 
his claims, Andrew sought for his brother Simon, 
and saying to him, " AVe have found the Messias, 
or Christ," he brought him to Jesus. And when 
Jesus beheld them, he said, " Thou art Simon, 
the son of Jona ; thou shalt be called Cephas," 
which is by interpretation into the Greek, Petra, 
and into English, a Rock. By this manner of 
receiving Simon, Jesus manifested t .at he was 
acquainted with him, and had formed an estimate 
of his character ; that he had marked him as 
one who was fitted by his energy and activity 
to establish his religion on durable foundations ; 
that even now he intended him for a great work. 
The brothers may at this early period be consid- 
ered as disciples or pupils of Jesus, though not 
yet chosen, according to the language of St. Mark, 
to " be with him always ;" for they still continued 
fishermen. It is pleasant to know that the two 
who were first called to be disciples, were united 
together by the tie of natural brotherhood ; that 
the one brother led the other to the Saviour ; 
that they pursued their simple occupation to- 
gether ; and that together they were called from 
that simple occupation to become fishers of men. 






SIMON PETER. 45 

That event took place a short time after, in 
the following manner. As Jesus stood by the 
lake, surrounded by a crowd who were pressing 
upon him to hear the word of God, he saw Simon 
and Andrew, in the practice of their usual occu- 
pation, and washing their nets on the shore. He 
entered their vessel, and prayed them to thrust 
out a little from the land, that he might the 
more conveniently teach the people. Then, hav- 
ing finished his discourse, he bade them launch 
out into the deep, and let down their net for a 
draught of fishes. It* is now that we begin to 
perceive the ardent, affectionate, and confiding 
character of Peter. Though he and his com- 
panions had been toiling through the night with- 
out the least success, yet he at once consented 
to make another effort, in obedience to the wishes 
of Jesus. " Nevertheless, at thy word," he says, 
" I will let down the net." This was no sooner 
done, than such a multitude of fishes were en- 
closed, that the net began to break, and they 
were obliged to call their partners, who were in 
another ship, to assist them, and both ships were 
so filled with what they drew in as to be near 
sinking. On beholding this, Simon Peter, ever 
a man of impulses, " fell down at Jesus' knees, 
saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 



46 SIMON PETER. 

O Lord." In a transport of fearful humility he 
beseeches Jesus to leave him, and not to stay 
with one so unworthy of his holy and wonderful 
presence. But Jesus, instead of leaving him, 
now gives him the call to his apostleship, saying 
to him, " Fear not ; from henceforth thou shalt 
catch men ; " or as the other evangelists write, 
applying the words to both the brethren, " I will 
make you fishers of men." Readily accepting 
the invitation to become the constant companions 
of the Messiah, and perhaps secretly expecting 
worldly advantage from their connexion with so 
great a personage, they straightway left all, their 
property, their home, and their former friends, 
and followed him. 

Peter's character now rapidly unfolds itself; 
a character of strong and contrasted features ; 
bold, honest, and vehement, and yet wavering 
and inconstant ; now forward and daring before 
all his companions, and now more timid than any 
of them. Wherever we meet with him, it is the 
same Simon that we see ; distinguished alike for 
high and generous virtues, and for faults incon- 
sistent with those virtues, and altogether unworthy 
of them. Strength and weakness, courage and 
irresolution, impetuosity and indecision, are mixed 
up in his temperament in a striking and yet per- 



SIMON PETER. 47 

fectly natural combination ; and at the bottom of 
the whole, there is a purity of feeling, and an 
integrity of purpose, which endear him to his 
Master, and fit him at last for his important 
destination and office. 

One of the occasions which may be noticed as 
developing these characteristics, is that of his 
attempt to walk on the sea to meet Jesus. We 
are informed that after the miracle of the loaves 
and fishes, which took place on one side of the 
lake, Jesus commanded his disciples to pass over 
to the other in a vessel, while he remained to 
send the multitude away. A storm overtook the 
ship when she was in the midst of the sea, and, 
while she was tossing on the waves, Jesus came 
to them in the fourth watch of the night, or 
towards morning, walking on the sea, as on dry 
land. At this extraordinary sight, the disciples 
were troubled, saying, " It is a spirit;" and to 
such a height was their terror excited, that they 
cried out for fear. But Jesus immediately spoke 
to them, and bade them not to be afraid, for it was 
himself. No sooner does Peter hear his voice, 
than he not only dismisses his fear, but gives 
loose to his enthusiasm, and unwilling to wait till 
his Master reaches the vessel, and perhaps too, 
tempted a little to display his faith, and do some 



48 SIMON PETER. 

great thing, he exclaims, before the others have 
recovered the use of their speech, " Lord, if it 
be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water." 
And Jesus, knowing him perfectly, and willing 
at once to gratify, to test, and to instruct him, 
said, " Come." Peter descends from the ship, 
and walks towards his Master. But the storm 
was stronger than his trust ; and when he felt 
himself out, so strangely and awfully, amidst the 
dashing foam and the boisterous wind, he was 
afraid, and he forgot his confidence ; and his 
faith, which hitherto had borne him up, grew 
faint and unable to hold him, and beginning to 
sink, he cried again, and with the voice of 
despair, to Jesus, " Lord, save me ! " " And 
immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and 
caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little 
faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" That was 
all the Saviour said ; that mild rebuke, so unlike 
the denunciations which his professed followers 
in other ages have launched at what they have 
been pleased to call, but could not with certainty 
know to be, deficiencies of faith ; that mild rebuke 
from him who did know all things, was the only 
punishment for the failing faith of the disciple ; 
"Wherefore didst thou doubt?" Wherefore, 
after seeing what thou hast seen, and hearing 



SIMON PETER. 49 

what thou hast heard, couldst thou doubt ? And 
he raised the self-convicted man, and brought 
him into the ship, and " the wind ceased." 

Notwithstanding Simon's occasional misgivings 
and temporary weaknesses, his fidelity was in the 
main firm and certain, because it was founded 
on the real goodness and tenderness of his nature. 
There was a time, when, as related in the sixth 
chapter of the Gospel of John, many of the fol- 
lowers of Jesus " went back, and walked no 
more with him," because he spoke to them ob- 
scurely and figuratively of his office and kingdom, 
and because, from what they did understand, 
they began to suspect that there was something 
much more spiritual and much less lucrative and 
splendid in his proposed dominion, than suited 
with their earthly conceptions. They went 
back, therefore, and walked no more with him. 
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, his chosen 
twelve, "Will ye also go away?" To whose 
heart, of those twelve hearts, does the affecting 
appeal first find its way ? Who answers it first 1 
The same man who but just now was afraid of 
the wind. " Then Simon Peter answered him, 
Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words 
of eternal life. And we believe and are sure 
that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living 



50 ' SIMON PETER. 

God." Generous, full-hearted, though too incon- 
stant disciple ! Though others desert that good 
and gentle Master, thou wilt not leave him. In 
this time of trial, thy heart has kept thee right. 
Thou art like some tall and comely tree, whose 
pliant trunk is swayed hither and thither by the 
passing storm, but whose tenacious root spreads 
wide abroad, and pierces deep beneath, and still 
reclaims the waving plant, and binds it firmly to 
the soil it loves. 

At yet another time also, Peter made the same 
open and bold confession. It was when Jesus, 
having asked his' disciples, whom men said that 
he was, and having received their answer, put 
the question to them, saying, " But whom say ye 
that I am?" Again it is the ardent Simon who 
advances before the rest, and answers unhesi- 
tatingly, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God." This renewed proof of his attach- 
ment and faith draws forth the marked approba- 
tion of his Master, who answered him and said, 
" Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jona ; for flesh 
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
Father who is in heaven. The spirit of God, him- 
self, hath enlightened thee. And I say also unto 
thee, that thou art Peter. I have already called 
thee a rock, and upon this rock will I build my 



SIMON PETER. 51 

church, and the gates of the place of death shall 
not prevail against it. Upon thy exertions shall 
the foundations of my church be laid, and laid 
so strongly, that they shall never be overturned 
nor destroyed. And I will give unto thee the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever 
thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in 
heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, 
shall be loosed in heaven." 

That by these words of Jesus a certain degree 
of apostolic preeminence was conferred on Peter, 
I think is too plain to be disputed ; though some 
over zealous Protestants have denied the fact. 
But why they should wish to deny it, I cannot 
see ; for I cannot see how the primacy which his 
Lord chose to confer on him should disturb them, 
nor can I see, on the other hand, how that pri- 
macy, being fully admitted, can be an argument 
for the papal supremacy. If Peter was thought 
by his Master worthy of standing first among his 
disciples, who shall say that he did not deserve 
the dignity ? But what was the nature of that 
dignity ? " On this rock will I build my church," 
said Jesus. The Christian church was not built 
on Peter alone, nor by him alone ; for all the 
apostles contributed to the edifice ; but to Peter 
was commissioned the duty of first declaring the 



52 SIMON PETER. 

gospel to the Jews, and indeed, by a special 
vision, to the Gentiles also; and the centurion 
and his family, converted and baptized by him, 
were the first fruits of Christianity out of the 
Jewish pale. He was therefore the foundation 
of the church ; the rock on which its beginnings 
were laid. But there is nothing transferable in 
this part of his dignity, at least. The founda- 
tions of the church are not to be laid twice and 
thrice, and over and over again, because a series 
of men calling themselves popes, claim to be 
his successors. Neither is there any promise of 
transmitting the keys of the kingdom of heaven, 
which signify only that authority which Peter, 
as an accredited apostle of Christ, was to have 
in his ministry. He was empowered to act in 
general as an ambassador from Heaven ; to enact 
regulations, to establish and to break down, to do 
and to undo, with the concurrence and power 
of the Head of the Church himself. And this 
authority, let it be remembered, was committed 
to all the rest of the apostles in precisely the 
same words ; for they also were to preach their 
Master's doctrine to the world, and needed his 
delegated power in things pertaining to his 
kingdom. To them also did he say, therefore, 
" Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be 



SIMON PETER. 53 

bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose 
on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." The pre- 
eminence of Peter, then, appears to be simply a 
precedence among his brethren and equals, which 
was conceded to his abilities and energy ; and 
a preference which was bestowed on him as a 
teacher of the religion of Christ. But there is 
no promise, no intimation, in the Scriptures, that 
even this preeminence was to descend on other 
men ; nor does the similarity between the popes 
of Rome and Simon Peter of Bethsaida, between 
the triple crowned sovereigns of Christendom, 
who once set their feet on kings' necks, and 
the plain fisherman of the sea of Galilee, seem 
to be, in any point of view, very close or strik- 
ing. 

Whatever elation of heart may have been 
produced in Peter by the praise of a beloved 
Master, it was almost immediately doomed to be 
checked and mortified by the same impartial 
voice ; for in the very chapter which records this 
last occurrence, we are told that the disciple 
drew upon himself one of the severest rebukes 
which Jesus ever uttered. " From that time 
forth," says the evangelist, " began Jesus to show 
unto his disciples, how that he must go unto 
Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders 



54 



SIMON PETER. 



and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and 
be raised again the third day." Intimations 
of this kind were always peculiarly unwelcome 
and enigmatical to the disciples ; and on this 
occasion Peter came forward as usual, and with 
even more than his usual warmth, took up his 
Master, and began to rebuke him, saying, " Be 
it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto 
thee." Though he had so lately acknowledged 
Jesus to be the Messiah, and had adhered to him 
in his humble and unkingly condition, yet even 
he had not wholly disjoined the ideas of worldly 
power and dignity from the person and office of 
the expected Saviour; and the thought of his 
violent and shameful death was altogether shock- 
ing to him. But Jesus was particularly anxious to 
crush these misapprehensions, and to familiarize 
his followers to his real situation and his ap- 
proaching and inevitable fate. He therefore 
thought proper, before them all, to express in a 
manner which might make them feel, how earnest 
his disapprobation was of their temporal expecta- 
tions and fancies. " He turned, and said unto 
Peter, get thee behind me, Satan ; [tempter, ad- 
versary ;] thou art an offence unto me ; for thou 
savorest not the things that be of God, but those 
that be of men." The disciples had yet to learn, 



SIMON PETER. 55 

Simon Peter had yet to learn, how pure, unearth- 
ly, and immortal that religion was, which they 
were appointed one day to promulgate ; how it 
associated itself more with human suffering than 
with human glory and pride ; more with the se- 
cret sympathies and internal affections, much 
more, than with the outward adornments of our 
nature ; and the early death of their Master — 
an event which they could not bear to think, and 
could hardly conceive of, but which he, the divine 
Master, saw with a clear and steady vision — was 
yet to teach them, that the infant doctrine which 
was to go through the world, consoling the sor- 
rows of the mourner, and pouring balm into 
wounded bosoms, was itself first to be nurtured 
with tears, and baptized in blood. 

There is no doubt that Peter received his 
Master's rebuke properly, for we find that he 
was still distinguished and confided in by him. 
He, together with James and John, was selected 
to witness the transfiguration on the mount ; and 
in the same company, he had also witnessed the 
resurrection of the daughter of Jairus. It ap- 
pears, moreover, that about this time he and his 
Lord dwelt together at Capernaum, in the same 
house ; for when the gatherers of the annual 
tribute came to Peter, he went into the house, 



56 SIMON PETER. 

and was there told by Jesus how he was to obtain 
a piece of money which would pay for them both. 
It would appear, therefore, that they lived to- 
gether, and if so, that the disciple was high in 
the favor and confidence of his Master. He 
seems also to have exercised a sort of conceded 
preeminence among the twelve, as we often find 
him speaking in their name and behalf, both in 
asking and in answering questions. His rank is 
now evidently fixed. He is honored by his Mas- 
ter, notwithstanding his imperfections, and he is 
the head of the apostles, both from appointment 
and character. 

But his fault of impetuosity is not yet mended. 
It is one of the last faults, perhaps, which ever 
is mended, because it is constitutional. On that 
most solemn night of the last supper, Jesus, in 
order that he might at once testify his affection 
for his disciples, whom he loved unto the end, 
and show them also an example of practical 
humility, began to wash their feet, as if he had 
been their servant. When he came to Peter, 
that disciple, hurt and grieved that his Master 
should undertake so menial an office, gives way 
to his feelings, again presumes to dictate to that 
very Master, and exclaims, " Lord, dost thou 
wash my feet?" Jesus condescends to expostu- 



SIMON PETER. 57 

late with him, and to assure him that he would 
soon explain to him the act which now appeared 
so strange. " What I do, thou knowest not now, 
but thou shalt know hereafter." But Peter will 
not yield, nor listen, but answers, " Thou shalt 
never wash my feet." To which Jesus replies, 
" If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with 
me." That is, " If you will not receive this 
symbolical lesson of humility ; if you cannot 
cease your disputes about who shall be greatest 
in my kingdom ; if you will not divest yourselves 
of your notions of place and dignity, and become 
lowly, meek, and mutually kind, as my disciples 
ought to be, and must be, if they desire my appro- 
bation, then I must discard you from my ser- 
vice, and deprive you of my friendship." Peter, 
subdued at the bare intimation of forfeiting his 
Master's esteem, and again driven beyond the 
just limits of duty by the sudden revulsion of his 
ungoverned feelings, cries out, " Lord, not my 
feet only, but my hands and my head. Wash 
me all over, if it be thy will, only take not from 
me thy love." How perfectly natural is the whole 
of this scene ; how consistent with the previous 
character of Peter ; how just to the character of 
his Lord ! 



58 SIMON PETER. 

And now the time draws near, when the first 
of the apostles is to be tried more severely, and 
to fall more sadly than ever. Soon after Jesus 
had washed his disciples' feet, he began to talk 
to them, in a most affecting strain, of his speedy 
death and his return to his Father. Peter's 
feelings are again alarmed, and he declares that 
wherever his Master may go, he will follow him, 
and go with him, even into prison and to death. 
" Though all men shall be offended because of 
thee, yet I will never be offended ; I will lay 
down my life for thy sake." Jesus, better aware 
of his disciple's weakness, and knowing that it 
would not be equal to the approaching trial, 
mournfully answered, " Wilt thou lay down thy 
life for my sake ? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
the cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me 
thrice." And yet the ardent disciple spoke the 
more vehemently, and said, " Though I should 
die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." 

Let us mark the result. After discoursing to 
his disciples, in those beautiful words which are 
to be found in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and six- 
teenth chapters of the Gospel of John, Jesus went 
out with them, and coming to a place which was 
named Gethsemane, left them there, and taking 
with him Peter, James, and John, to watch with 



SIMON PETER. 



59 



him, withdrew apart to pray to his Father. When 
he returned to these favored three, he found them, 
not watching, but asleep. It was towards morn- 
ing; and with frames oppressed with fatigue, 
and minds made heavy with sorrow, they had not 
been able to watch with their suffering and agon- 
ized Lord during his short absence, but had sunk 
down in a leaden slumber. More in pity than in 
wrath, the Saviour, addressing himself particu- 
larly to Peter, as the individual who had boasted 
the loudest, and had the most need of warning, 
said to him, " What ! could ye not watch with 
me one hour? After all your professions, can 
you not banish sleep, and prove your attachment, 
by a vigil, for my sake, of one short hoar ? Watch 
and pray, that ye enter not into temptation ; the 
spirit indeed is full of courage, but the flesh is 
weak." Again and again he returns to them, 
and still finds them sleeping. Then comes the 
traitor Judas, with his band, and they are roused 
effectually ; and Peter, who could not watch for 
his Master at his earnest request, undertakes, 
without his authority, to fight for him ; and he 
drew his sword, and smote a servant of the high 
priest, and cut off his ear. So much easier is it 
to fight than to be dutiful ; and so much the 
more readily could Peter obey the impulses of his 



60 



SIMON PETER. 



passions, than the behest of his Lord. Jesus 
calmly reproves the offender, and then all his 
disciples forsook him and fled. 

There were two, however, who did not wholly 
forsake him; but still, though at a distance, fol- 
lowed him. One of these two was Peter ; he 
sincerely loved his Master, and though just re- 
buked by him, he resolves not to lose sight of 
him, but follows him afar off, even into the court 
of the high priest's house. There, trembling, 
anxious, and vibrating between fear and affection, 
he takes his seat with the servants at the fire. 
He does not remain there long unsuspected, but is 
charged with being one of the followers of Jesus. 
His fear preponderates ; his bold resolution, so 
lately formed, gives way ; he denies ail knowledge 
of his Master. Yes, Simon Peter, the leader of 
the twelve, the rock of the church, the confidant 
of Jesus, who walked on the sea, who held the 
spiritual keys, who saw the dead raised up, who 
witnessed the glorious transfiguration, who de- 
clared himself but just now ready to be bound, 
and led to death for his Master, now sits among 
menials, denying him to menials ! with the min- 
gled flush of dread and shame upon his cheek, 
denying to a set of scoffing hirelings of a corrupt 
palace, that he ever knew that kind and trusting 



SIMON PETER. 61 

Master, whom he had so lately acknowledged to 
be the princely Messiah, the Son of the King of 
Heaven ! By and by, and from another quarter, 
he is again attacked with the same charge ; 
" Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth." 
Having committed himself once, and not having 
recovered from his confusion and fear ; detected, 
and yet obstinate ; struggling between contrition 
and wrath, a deep sense of humiliation, and a 
strong dread of exposure, he again " denied be- 
fore them all, saying, I know not what thou 
say est." 

There are some apparent discrepances in the 
several accounts given by the evangelists of Pe- 
ter's denial of his Master. But they are only 
apparent ; and indeed the veracity of the sacred 
writers is rather confirmed by these slight differ- 
ences, which ought to be expected in separate 
narratives of what must necessarily have been a 
confused and hurried scene. John, for instance, 
says that Peter stood with the officers at the fire, 
and Matthew and Mark say that he sat. Doubt- 
less he sat at one time and stood at another, in the 
agitation he was in, and therefore both relations 
are not only true, but more strikingly authentic 
from their very appearance of discrepancy. Again, 
there is a difference with regard to the persons 



KfZ SIMON PETER. 

who are represented as having at several times 
accused Peter. Now, it is highly probable that 
though the apostle made but three distinct de- 
nials, he was yet accused by many, who in a 
tumultuous manner may have raised their voices 
against him, and thus rendered it doubtful who 
was the prominent assailant among a number of 
clamorous witnesses. In short, the accounts of 
the evangelists are evidently but sketches of a 
scene in which many things occurred which are 
not related by either, and some things, which 
are recorded by one, though omitted by another. 
The main facts, however, agree in all ; and this 
being the case, the variations accord so well with 
the character of the scene described, and the 
agitation which all parties must have been in, 
that they only add truth to truth. 

Only imagine the scene ! Jesus, standing 
bound, as if he had been a criminal, surrounded 
by soldiers and exulting enemies, and questioned 
like an apprehended culprit by the high priest, 
but dignified, collected, and prepared for the 
worst ; while just below is his chief disciple, in 
the midst of a servile crowd, agonized with terror, 
and endeavouring with all his native vehemence, 
and with a native accent too, which of itself 
contradicts him, to clear himself before his con- 



SIMON PETER. 63 

temptible accusers from the imputation of having 
any thing to do with one whom he had been 
following daily and hourly for months, and whom, 
but a few moments ago, he had promised to follow 
to prison and to death ! But the measure of his 
degradation is not yet full ; for again, the third 
time, is the charge repeated ; " Surely, thou 
also art one of them, for thy speech betrayeth 
thee." And then, as others are apt to do, who 
become more boisterous the more they are in the 
wrong and the nearer they are to detection, and 
who call the God of truth to witness their trans- 
gressions of truth, the unhappy man " began to 
curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. 
And immediately the cock crew." How dark 
is the account now of disgrace and crime against 
the fallen disciple ! Ingratitude, cowardice, false- 
hood, profanity ! It was the lowest fall ; and, 
happily, it was the last. " The Lord turned, and 
looked upon Peter." What a volume of pathos 
and eloquence is contained in those few simple 
words ! His Lord looked upon him, " and with 
that gracious and chiding look called him back 
to himself and him." He remembered all ; re- 
membered his Master's love, remembered his 
Master's warning, remembered his own duty. 
Conviction falls upon him, repentance overwhelms 
him, and he went out and wept bitterly. 



64 SIMON PETER. 

" What language in that look ! Swifter than thought 
The apostle's eye it caught, 
And sank into his very soul ! 
Through every vein a thrilling tremor crept : 
Away he stole, 

And wept ; 
Bitterly he wept ! " 

From this time till after the crucifixion of 
Jesus, we hear no more of Peter. He probably 
passed this distressing interval in remorse and 
tears ; and there is no doubt that his repentance 
was entire and sincere, and that his character 
was much improved and purified by the late fiery 
trial through which it had been led ; for we find 
that Jesus, on the morning of his resurrection, 
after he had shown himself to Mary Magdalene, 
appeared also to Peter, according to an especial 
message which he had sent to him by an angel, 
in testimony of his continued confidence in him.* 

* The message was delivered by the angel to the Marys, who 
reported it to Peter. The angel, or young man clothed in white, 
says to the women, " Tell his disciples, and Peter, that he goeth 
before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him, as he said unto you." 
What a touching pledge of forgiveness and reconciliation ! The moral 
to be derived from the history of Peter's fall, is thus well and con- 
cisely brought home to us in the following verse by Cowper. 

Beware of Peter's word, 
Nor confidently say 
" I never will deny thee, Lord," 
But, " Grant I never may ! " 



SIMON PETER. 65 

That Peter had returned to his allegiance, is 
manifest from the fact that he was the first of 
the male disciples who descended into the tomb 
wherein the Saviour had been laid. 

Some days afterwards, as several of the dis- 
ciples were fishing together in a vessel, on the 
sea of Tiberias, Jesus appeared to them on the 
shore. On this occasion we may again observe 
a symptom of Peter's characteristic ardor. No 
sooner had he understood from John that it was 
the Lord who stood on the shore, and had been 
speaking with them, than he girt his fisher's coat 
about him, cast himself into the sea, and in this 
manner gained the land, while the rest came 
after him in the vessel. When they had all dined 
on the fish which had been taken, Jesus required 
of Peter that thrice repeated assurance of his 
love, in which a fanciful interpreter would dis- 
cover a direct allusion to the late thrice repeated 
denial. On receiving each assurance, his Lord 
gives him an especial charge to feed his sheep. 
He then signified to him, though darkly, by what 
death he should glorify God ; but refused to gratify 
his curiosity respecting the fate of his fellow dis- 
ciple, John. 

In the Gospels, we have no further information 
respecting this apostle. On turning to the book 



66 SIMON PETER. 

of Acts, however, he is immediately presented to 
us in his former rank and station, as chief of the 
apostles, speaking in their name, and presiding 
at their meetings. It is he who proposes that 
the vacated place of Judas Iscariot should be 
supplied by lot. When some of those who were 
present at the effusion of the Holy Spirit, and 
the gift of tongues, mocked at the disciples, and 
said that they were full of new wine, it was Peter 
who in a most spirited manner refuted the slan- 
der, and spoke so powerfully of his Master's 
claims, that on the same day there were added to 
the number of Christian believers, about three 
thousand souls. It was Peter who healed the 
lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple ; 
who addressed the people on that occasion ; who, 
when arraigned before the chief priests, declared 
so boldly to them that salvation was alone by 
Jesus Christ ; and who, when he and his com- 
panion John were commanded not to speak at all 
nor teach in that name, returned, jointly with the 
beloved disciple, that heroic answer, " Whether 
it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto 
you more than unto God, judge ye." It was 
Peter who exposed the deception of Ananias and 
his wife Sapphira, and at whose feet they both 
fell down dead. And it was Peter, who, by his 



SIMON PETER. 67 

shadow alone, healed many who were laid in his 
way.* 

After Samaria had, through the instrumen- 
tality of Philip, received the word of God, Peter 
and John were sent there by the apostles, in 
order that they might lay their hands on the 
converts, and cause them to receive the Holy 
Spirit, f And then it was that Peter so indig- 
nantly rebuked Simon the sorcerer, who thought 
that the gift of God might be purchased with 
money. " Thy money perish with thee," said 

* It is not expressly asserted in Acts, v. 15, that those persons 
were healed by Peter's shadow, and therefore some commentators 
have taken it for granted that they were not, and have even gone so 
far as to assert that the apostle's neglect of them was a punishment 
for their superstition. So says Rosenmuller. But in the next verse 
we are told that great numbers of sick persons were also brought to 
him from the cities round about, and " were healed every one." 
Now there seems to be no good reason why these should be healed, 
and those who belonged to the city should be neglected. Their 
being placed in Peter's way, so that even his shadow might pass 
over them, shows more the affectionate and confident faith of them 
and their friends, than it does their superstition. If Peter was 
empowered from on high to heal diseases, he could do so by his 
shadow, as well as by a touch or a few words. His will war the 
agent: the signs of its exertion were of no importance in them- 
selves. As we are not informed that Peter rebuked those who laid 
the sick under his shadow, the most reasonable and compassionate 
inference is, that these, as well as the others, were healed. 

■\ The fact that the apostles sent Peter on this mission, is proof 
sufficient that his precedence among them was far from being of the 
papal character. 



68 SIMON PETER. 

he ; " thou hast neither part nor lot in this mat- 
ter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of 
God." 

We now find him very actively engaged in the 
duties of his apostleship, " passing throughout 
all quarters," performing miracles, preaching the 
word, and feeding the sheep of the great shep- 
herd. At Lydda, he healed a certain man, named 
iEneas, who had been sick with the palsy eight 
years; and at the neighbouring town of Joppa 
he raised to life a pious female disciple by the 
name of Tabitha, or Dorcas.* 

j# Joppa he abode many days with one Simon, 
a tanner. It was while he was living here, that 
he was called to instruct and baptize Cornelius, 
the centurion, who dwelt in Csesarea ; to prepare 
him for which duty, he was taught, in a remark- 
able vision, not to call any creature of God com- 
mon or unclean, and that God is no respecter of 
persons, but in every nation he that feareth him, 
and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. 
With these convictions on his mind, he obeys the 
call of Cornelius to come to him, and while he 
is addressing him, witnesses the descent of the 
spirit on him and his family, and orders them to 

* Tabitha being the Syriac name, and Dorcas its translation into 
Greek. The words mean a doe or kid. 



SIMON PETER. b\9 

be baptized in the name of the Lord. Thus he 
fulfilled to the utmost the prediction with which 
his name of Peter was conferred on him, and 
founded the Christian church in both the Jew- 
ish and the Gentile world. It was an event of 
which we at this period can hardly estimate the 
importance. Devoid of Jewish prejudices and 
antipathies, we can hardly conceive with what 
consternation the Jewish converts, who, as Jews, 
had always cherished the belief that religion and 
truth and God's peculiar favor always had been, 
and always were to be, confined to them, must 
have listened to the intelligence, that the chief of 
the apostles had been breaking down the wall, 
and drawing up the veil which were interposed 
between the faithful people and the rest of the 
world, and that henceforth there was to be no 
spiritual distinction between Hebrew and Greek, 
Jew and Gentile. Some conception of this in- 
dignant surprise of theirs may be formed from 
the recorded circumstance, that when Peter had 
returned to Jerusalem, " they that were of the 
circumcision," including his fellow apostles, and 
indeed the whole Christian church, " contended 
with him, saying, thou wentest in to men uncir- 
cumcised, and didst eat with them." It was 
enough to provoke their amazement, that he 



70 SIMON PETER. 

simply eat with them. But Peter had the stead- 
fastness to defend himself, and expound the whole 
matter to them from the beginning ; and so much 
were they impressed by the force and reason of 
his words, that they acquiesced in peace, " and 
glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the 
Gentiles granted repentance unto life." 

Not long after this, Peter was put into prison 
by Herod, but was set free by an angel, who 
came to him while he " was sleeping between 
two soldiers, bound with two chains." That he 
was sleeping in such a situation, is an incidental 
and beautiful proof of his tranquillity in extreme 
danger. He then went down from Judea to 
Caesarea, and there abode ; very probably in the 
house, or under the protection of Cornelius, his 
distinguished convert. 

The next time that we hear of him, is at the 
meeting of apostles and elders, which is generally 
called the Council of Jerusalem, and which was 
convened to settle the long and vehemently agi- 
tated question, again brought up by some of the 
believing Pharisees, whether it was needful to 
circumcise all converts, and command them to 
keep the law of Moses. When there had been 
much disputing, Peter rose up, and gave his 
decided opinion against the necessity of circum- 



SIMON PETER. 71 

cising the Gentiles, or bringing them under the 
ceremonial law. And with this opinion the Coun- 
cil at last coincided. 

With the history of this Council, the notices 
of Peter's life in the Acts of the apostles come 
to an end. He is named a few times in the 
epistles of Paul, and once with reprehension. 
That apostle tells us, in his epistle to the Gala- 
tians, that when Peter was come to Antioch,* he 
withstood him to the face, because he was to be 
blamed ; for that although he had already eaten 
with Gentiles, according to his own new princi- 
ples so openly professed, yet when some of the 
circumcision came to Antioch, he withdrew from 
the Gentiles, from fear of the circumcised. This 
was an inconsistency, certainly, and shows that 
some remains of weakness still lingered about 
the character of Peter ; but it is t e only incon- 
sistency which is laid to his charge from the time 
of his Master's resurrection ; and he can easily 

* Ecclesiastical historians say that Peter founded the church at 
Antioch, and some add, that he was its first bishop. Chrysostom 
writes, " This is one prerogative of our city, (Antioch,) that we 
had at the beginning the chief of the apostles for our master. For 
it was fit, that the place, which was first honored with the name of 
Christians, should have the chief of the apostles for its pastor. But 
though we had him for a master awhile, we did not detain him, but 
resigned him to the royal city, Rome. Or rather, we have him still. 
For though we have not his body, we have his faith." — Chrysostom, 
as adduced by Lardner. 



72 SIMON TETER. 

be forgiven, when we consider how much he had 
done and suffered, ever since that event, in his 
Master's name, and for his Master's cause. 

All that remains to be said of this remarkable 
man, is to be gathered, not from the Scriptures, 
but from other early accounts, the authority of 
which, though not to be compared with that of 
the Scriptures, should be held in a due degree of 
respect. We are informed by Eusebius, that Ori- 
gen wrote of him, that " he was supposed to have 
preached to the Jews of the dispersion in Pontus, 
Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia. And 
at length coming to Rome, was crucified with 
his head downwards." This kind of death he 
was said to have requested, out of a feeling of 
humble respect to his Master. If so, it is an 
affecting conclusion of his eventful life, and 
another striking exhibition of the ardent charac- 
ter which adhered to him to the last. He con- 
ceived it too great an honor that such an one 
as he should meet his death erect, and looking 
upwards, like his beloved and venerated Lord; 
and so, with his head in the dust, he closed his 
labors, his failings, his victories, his sufferings, 
and his life. 

There are Roman Catholic writers, who main- 
tain that Peter was bishop of Rome during a 



SIMON PETER. 73 

period of twenty-five years before his martyrdom 
there. But this assertion, though supported by 
such high authority as that of Jerome, has been 
shown by Cave and others to be w r holly unfound- 
ed. The most authentic account is, that Peter, 
after having been in Antioch for a season, came 
to Rome about the year 63 or 64, and suffered 
martyrdom in the manner above stated, a year 
or two after, during the persecution of the Chris- 
tians by the tyrant Nero, and that St. Paul was 
martyred there at the same time. It also seems 
probable, that he was crucified and buried on the 
Vatican hill, whence his remains were afterwards 
removed to the Catacombs in the neighbourhood 
of the city. Caius, a writer quoted by Eusebius, 
states that in his time, about the year 200, the 
tombs of Peter and Paul were to be seen at 
Rome, which is very likely to be true. It is the 
belief of the Catholics, that the body of Peter 
now reposes under the splendid church which is 
called by his name ; 

" Christ's mighty shrine ahove his martyr's tomb ! " 

Cave inclines to the opinion that neither Peter 
nor Paul was, properly speaking, bishop of the 
Roman church. He supposes that by their united 
exertions they planted it, and that its first bishop 



74 SIMON PETER. 

was Linus, who, by the Catholics, is placed next 
to St. Peter in the episcopal see. Irenaeus, about 
178, speaks of the church of Rome as " founded 
and established by the two great apostles, Peter 
and Paul." But Epiphanius calls them the first 
apostles and bishops of Rome ; after whom, he 
says, were Linus, Cietus, Clement. 

The following description of the person of St. 
Peter, by Nicephorus, an ecclesiastical historian 
of the early part of the fourteenth century, is 
entitled to very little credence. But it may be 
regarded as a curiosity, if not a true portrait. 
" His body was somewhat slender, of a middle 
size, but rather inclining to tallness ; his com- 
plexion very pale and almost white ; the hair of 
his head and beard curled and thick, but withal 
short; though St. Jerome tells us that he was 
bald, which probably might be in his declining 
age ; his eyes black, but specked with red ; his 
eyebrows thin, or none at all ; his nose long, but 
rather broad and flat than sharp." 

It is certain that he was a married man, and 
probable that his wife accompanied him in his 
journeys. St. Paul is thought to intimate as 
much, when he says, in his first epistle to the 
Corinthians, (ix. 5.) " Have we not power to 
lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apos- 



SIMON PETER. 75 

ties, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Ce- 
phas?" 

That he was married when he was called to 
be an apostle, is certain, as the Scriptures men- 
tion his " wife's mother." But staunch Catholics, 
with Jerome at their head, will have it, that he 
left his wife when he left all to follow Jesus. 
This, however, does not well agree with the tes- 
timony of Paul. Clemens Alexandrinus relates, 
that Peter, seeing his wife going to be martyred, 
exceedingly rejoiced that she was elected to so 
great an honor, and that she was now returning 
home, and calling her by her name, encouraged 
and exhorted her, bidding her to be mindful of 
our Lord. The apostle is also said to have had 
a daughter, by the name of Petronilla. 

Two epistles of Peter are received into the 
Canon of the New Testament. The authenticity 
of the first is well established and generally al- 
lowed. It is addressed " to the strangers scat- 
tered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, 
Asia, and Bithynia." By these " strangers" is 
most probably meant the Jewish Christians who 
sojourned in those regions ; though some com- 
mentators would have the term to apply both to 
Jewish and Gentile converts. The epistle was 
written from Rome, which is figuratively denomi- 



76 



SIMON PETER. 



nated Babylon, in the concluding salutation. Its 
purpose was to strengthen and comfort those to 
whom it was addressed, who were suffering under 
the persecutions which had begun to be fiercely 
waged against them by the heathens. The topics 
urged in it, are equal to its design, and are highly 
consolatory and animating. Of the whole epistle, 
Erasmus says, "It is worthy of the Prince of 
the Apostles, and full of apostolical dignity and 
authority. It is sparing in words, but full of 
sense." 

The genuineness of the second epistle has 
been called in question, from early times. It 
never was fully disproved, however, and there 
was good reason for numbering it at last among 
the sacred books. The testimony of Eusebius 
concerning it is as follows: " One epistle of Pe- 
ter, called his first, is acknowledged. This the 
presbyters of ancient times have quoted in their 
writings, as undoubtedly genuine. But that called 
his second, we have been informed by tradition, 
has not been received as a part of the New Tes- 
tament. Nevertheless, appearing to many to be 
useful, it hath been carefully studied with the 
other Scriptures." Origen, who flourished in the 
third century, says of the two epistles, " Peter, 
on whom the church is built, hath left an epistle 



SIMON PETER. 77 

universally acknowledged. Let it be granted that 
he has also written a second; for it is doubted." 
That it was doubted, is no proof of any thing 
more than that the evidence in its favor was not 
so complete as that which could be produced for 
other sacred books. And it may be said, both 
of this epistle and the few other writings of tfi£ 
canon which were not fully received, that they 
manifest in their history, how careful the first 
Christians were in examining the claims of alleged 
apostolical compositions, and adopting them as of 
authority in the church. The learned and can- 
did Lardner observes, that so well founded was 
the judgment of those early Christians, concern- 
ing the books of the New Testament, that no 
writing which was by them pronounced genuine, 
has, since their time, been found spurious ; nei- 
ther have we, at this day, the least reason to 
think any book genuine, which they rejected. 

We may be authorized, therefore, in accepting 
the second epistle of Peter as his true work, not- 
withstanding the rather doubtful character of its 
evidence. If it was written by him, it was prob- 
ably written to the same persons, and from the 
same place with the first. It was written, also, 
not long after the first, and not long before the 
death of the apostle. 



78 SIMON PETER. 

The day consecrated to St. Peter, as that of 
his martyrdom, in the Roman Calendar, to which 
the Calendar of the English Church corresponds, 
is June 29. 






ANDREW. 



Of Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, we 
are told but little in the sacred writings ; not 
enough, indeed, to enable us to form any estimate 
of his character. We may be permitted to con- 
jecture, however, from the circumstance of his 
having been a disciple of John the Baptist, and 
also from his having gone voluntarily to hear the 
instructions of Jesus, and thus made himself his 
first disciple among those who were afterwards 
his apostles ; we may conjecture, I say, from 
these circumstances, which have already been 
stated in the life of Peter, that the temperament 
of Andrew was sober and religious, and that his 
mind was remarkably open to the reception of 
truth. So far as we can argue at all, we may 
argue the existence of every thing that is good, 
from such commendable appearances. We can 
easily believe that he was a serious, candid, 
steadfast man ; very probably without the shining 
talents and the burning zeal of his brother, and 



80 



ANDREW. 



quite as probably without his brother's prominent 
faults. That not much is recorded of him, is a 
proof that he was not very forward or active 
among the twelve ; bui; it is by no means a proof 
that he wanted good sense, discretion, or sta- 
bility. 

We may also confidently deduce the affec- 
tionateness of this apostle's character, from the 
circumstance of his seeking his brother, first of 
all, with that eager exclamation, " We have 
found the Messiah!" This fact alone would be 
enough to interest us in him, did we know nothing 
of him beside. After spending part of a day 
with Jesus in his place of abode, and being satis- 
fied that he was the long-looked-for Redeemer, 
he does not shut up this knowledge in his own 
breast, and feed upon the honor alone ; neither 
does he go and make himself of consequence by 
blazoning the matter abroad ; but he hastens to 
share the pleasure and the confidence with his 
brother. " He first findeth his own brother Si- 
mon, and saith unto him, " We have found the 
Messiah. And he brought him to Jesus." His 
joy was increased by his thus imparting it ; and 
so will our piety be strengthened by communica- 
tion. Who, that has truly found Jesus, will not 
desire, after the example of Andrew, to lead a 



ANDREW. 



81 



brother to his blessed abode? And who that 
succeeds in leading a brother there, will not feel 
that he crosses the sacred threshold with more 
delight and confidence than before ? 

Andrew is generally styled by the ancient wri- 
ters of the church, Protoclctos, or thejirst called. 
The following encomium on him, is by Hesychius, 
Presbyter of Jerusalem. " St. Andrew was the 
first-born of the Apostolic Choir ; the prime pil- 
lar of the church ; a rock before the rock ; the 
foundation of that foundation ; the first fruits of 
the beginning ; a caller of others before he was 
called himself. He preached that gospel which 
was not yet believed or entertained ; revealed and 
made known that life to his brother, which he had 
not yet perfectly learned himself. So great treas- 
ures did that one question bring him, ' Master, 
where dwellest thou ? ' which he soon perceived 
by the answer given him, and which he deeply 
pondered in his mind, ' Come, and see.' " 

We find, further, concerning him, that he was 
the disciple, who, just before the miracle of feed- 
ing the five thousand, informed Jesus that there 
was a lad present who had five barley loaves and 
two small fishes, and then added the question, 
" But what are they among so many 1 " This ques- 
tion, on the first view of it, seems to denote that 

G 



82 



ANDREW. 



Andrew had no idea that it was practicable to 
feed the multitude, and merely mentioned the 
small quantity of provisions in despair, and as an 
aggravation of their condition ; but it is possible, 
too, that he may have entertained a secret hope 
that it was in his Master's power to relieve their 
wants even with the fiv 3 loaves and two fishes, and 
that he propounded the question in a hesitating 
manner, that he might draw forth his Master's 
intentions. If this last is the fact, it shows that 
he possessed more faith than was often manifested 
by the other disciples, though not such an enthu- 
siastic faith as was sometimes displayed by his 
more ardent brother. 

We read also of Andrew, that when certain 
Greeks, who had come up to Jerusalem to wor- 
ship at the feast of the Passover, expressed to 
Philip their desire to see Jesus, Philip mentioned 
the request to Andrew, and then they went both 
together to impart it to Jesus. These Greeks 
were no doubt what were called Proselytes of the 
Gate, or Greeks who had been converted to the 
acknowledgment and worship of the true God ; 
but who, on account of their Gentile extraction, 
were not entitled to all the religious privileges 
and distinctions of native Jews. They had heard 
of the fame of Jesus, and desired to be intro- 



ANDREW. 83 

duced to his presence, not only to gratify their 
curiosity, but, if we may judge from the succeed- 
ing discourse of our Saviour, to inquire concern- 
ing his kingdom. The precaution which was 
used by Philip in preferring their request, is a 
sign, in the first place, that he was doubtful 
whether a Gentile ought to be brought into the 
company of the Messiah ; and, secondly, that 
Andrew was, in his opinion, a person with whom 
he might profitably consult, in an affair which 
appeared to him to be of some moment and 
delicacy. 

It was a few days after this, that Andrew, to- 
gether with Peter, James, and John, asked Jesus, 
privately, what the sign should be, when all the 
things, which he had just been telling them re- 
specting the destruction of the temple, should be 
fulfilled. This is all which is related of this 
apostle in the Gospels. In no other part of the 
writings of the New Testament is he ever men- 
tioned, excepting as he is included in the mention 
of the apostles as a body. 

Other ancient accounts inform us, that he 
preached the gospel in Scythia, Byzantium or 
Constantinople, various provinces of Greece, and 
other countries and cities. At Sinope, on the 
Euxine Sea, he is said to have met with his 



84 ANDREW. 

brother Peter. At last, coming to Patrae in 
Achaia, now Patras, an archiepiscopal see, he 
was crucified there, by order of Egaeus, proconsul 
of that province. On approaching the cross to 
which he was condemned to be bound with cords, 
that his death might be more lingering, he is 
said, by one of the ancients, to have apostrophized 
it in the following ardent manner ; — " Hail, pre- 
cious cross, which has been consecrated by the 
body of my Lord ! how ardently have I loved 
thee ! how long have I sought thee ! at length I 
have found thee, now waiting to receive my long- 
ing soul. Take and snatch me from among 
mortals and present me to my Master, that he 
who redeemed me on thee, may receive me at 
thy hands." 

The instrument of his martyrdom is commonly 
affirmed to have been what is called a cross decus- 
sate, made by two pieces of timber crossing each 
other in the middle, in the form of the letter X, 
and hence known by the name of St. Andrew's 
Cross. 

His body was afterwards removed to Constan- 
tinople, and he is considered by the modern 
Greeks, as founder of the Byzantine or Constan- 
tinopolitan church. 



ANDREW. 85 

Andrew is also the patron saint of Scotland ; 
and the Scotch had a tradition that his remains 
were brought to their country, and entombed at 
St. Andrews, in the fourth century. The day 
reserved to him in the Calendar, is November 30. 
This day leads the season of Advent ; and the 
honor of thus announcing the time of the Lord's 
coming, is said to be assigned to him, on account 
of his having been the first who came to Christ. 



JAMES THE GREATER, 



James, the son of Zebedee, and the brother 
of John, is the third named on Matthew's list of 
the apostles. Of his father we are told nothing ; 
but his mother, as appears by a comparison of 
parallel passages, was Salome, who emulated her 
children in attachment to the Saviour, and is 
spoken of as one of those women who followed 
and occasionally served him, who accompanied 
him to the cross, and were the first who were 
permitted to see him after his resurrection. 
This James has received the surname of the 
Greater, or Elder, to distinguish him from the 
other apostle, James the Less, of whom I shall 
speak hereafter. 

He, with his brother John, pursued the same 
occupation with their townsmen Peter and An- 
drew, and were partners with them. They were 
also washing their nets on the shore, when Jesus 
entered the vessel of their partners. They be- 
held the miraculous draught of fishes ; they 



JAMES THE GREATER. 87 

assisted to secure it ; they were astonished at it, 
and when Jesus, after calling Peter and Andrew, 
called them also, " they immediately left the ship 
and their father, and followed him." 

Here I cannot help requesting my readers to 
pause a moment, and consider the fortunes, the 
singular, and, if the wo-rd were holy enough, I 
would say romantic, fortunes of these four men. 
Simon and Andrew, James and John, brethren 
of two different families, dwell together with 
their parents, in a village at the northern ex- 
tremity of a lake or small sea, in the district of 
Galilee, and on the confines of the land of Judea. 
The sea is a large sea to them, and to them the 
towns, which here and there dot its coast, and 
the light barks, which, for the purposes of amuse- 
ment, or traffic, or their own calling, skim along 
its pleasant waters, are the world. They are 
fishermen. Day by day do they rise up to the 
contented exercise of their toil, to throw their 
nets, to spread their sails, to ply their oars, and, 
when successful in pursuit, to dispose of their 
freight in their native village, or the neighbouring 
towns, for the support of themselves and their 
families. They are friends, partners ; they have 
joined themselves to each other in their humble 
profession, and agreed to share profit and loss, 



88 JAMES THE GREATER. 

storm and calm, together. Their low-roofed 
dwellings look out on each other, and on their 
native lake, and within these dwellings are 
bosoms which throb anxiously at their protracted 
absence, and beat gladly at their return. Their 
boats contain all their wealth, and their cottages 
all that they love. Their fathers, perhaps their 
ancestors, were fishers before them. They them- 
selves have no idea of a different lot. The only 
changes on which they calculate, are the changes 
of the weather and the vicissitudes of their call- 
ing ; and the only great interruptions of the even 
courses of their lives, to which they look forward, 
are the annual journeys which they take, at the 
periods of solemn festival, to the great city of 
Jerusalem. Thus they live, and thus they ex- 
pect to live, till they lie down to sleep with their 
fathers, as calmly, as unknowing, and as unknown 
as they. 

Look at them, on the shore of their lake. 
Think not of them as apostles, as holy men ; 
but look at them as they actually were on the 
morning when you first hear of them from the 
historian. They have been toiling through a 
weary night, and have caught nothing : and now, 
somewhat disheartened at their ill success, they 
are engaged in spreading their nets, washing 



JAMES THE GREATER. 89 

them, and preparing them, as they hope, for a 
more fortunate expedition. Presently, surrounded 
by an eager crowd, that teacher approaches, 
whom they have before seen, and whose instruc- 
tions some of them have already listened to. 
With his demeanour of quiet but irresistible dig- 
nity, he draws toward the spot where they are 
employed; he enters Simon's vessel, and prays 
him to thrust out a little distance from the land; 
then he speaks to that assembled multitude as 
never man spake ; then he bids Simon launch 
out further, and cast his net in the deep ; then 
follows the overwhelming draught of fishes ; and 
then those four partners, filled with wonder and 
awe, are called to quit their boats, and throw by 
their nets, and become fishers of men. 

And now what a change, like the change of a 
dream or of enchantment, has passed over their 
lives, dividing what was, from what was to be ! 
It was long before they themselves were aware, 
how entire and how stupendous it was. In a 
few years, they are to be the principal actors in 
the most extraordinary events of recorded time. 
Home, kindred, country, are to be forsaken for 
ever. Their nets may hang and bleach in the 
sun ; their boats may rot piecemeal on the shore; 
for the owners of them are far away, sailing over 



90 JAMES THE GREATER. 

seas to which that of Gennesareth is a pond ; 
exciting whole cities and countries to wonder 
and tumult ; answering before kings ; imprisoned, 
persecuted, tortured ; their whole existence a 
storm, and a greater one than ever swept over 
their lake. On the peaceful shore of that lake, 
even their bones may not rest. Their ashes are 
to be separated from the ashes of their kindred. 
Their blood is to be sprinkled on foreign soils ; 
the headsman and executioner are to preside 
over their untimely obsequies. A few years 
more, and the fame and the doctrine of these 
fishermen have gone out into all lands. Magnifi- 
cent churches are called by their names. King- 
doms adopt them for their tutelar saints ; and the 
men who claim to succeed to the office of one of 
them, rule for centuries over all civilized king- 
doms with a despotic and overshadowing sway, 
and by virtue of that claim give away a continent, 
a world, which, when their predecessor lived, was 
entirely unknown. History tells us of a fisherman 
of Sicily, who was raised to that island's throne ; 
but who will compare that, or any earthly throne, 
to the twelve thrones which were set up over the 
twelve tribes of Israel ? What is a king of Sicily 
to an apostle of Christ? A wonderful man has 
risen up in our own, as we call it, wonderful 



JAMES THK GREATER. 91 

time, risen up from a moderate station to the 
empire of Europe ; and yet the eight volumes 
which another wonderful man has written of that 
emperor's deeds and fortunes, have not preserved, 
and cannot preserve, such a name for his hero, 
as is secured by hardly more than eight lines, 
which tell us of those men who first fished for 
their living on the sea of Galilee, and then were 
called to be apostles of Christ. 

My digression has led me far away, over dis- 
tant countries and through many years. Let us 
return to the land of Judea, and the history of 
James. We ascertain, that among the twelve, 
he was one of those who were the most honored 
by the confidence of Jesus. - With his former 
partner Simon, and his brother John, he was 
selected, as we have already seen, to accompany 
his Lord on several very important occasions ; 
such as that of the resurrection of J aims' daugh- 
ter, the transfiguration, and the agony in the 
garden. It was perhaps on the strength of this 
manifest confidence, and of her own services, 
that Salome, the mother of James and John, 
made that ambitious and truly maternal request 
to Jesus, that her sons might sit on his right and 
left hand in his kingdom ; that is, enjoy the two 
highest dignities next to his own, when he, as 
the Messiah, should mount the throne of Israel. 



92 



JAMES THE GREATER. 



This is another instance of the universal mis- 
apprehension which then prevailed, and from 
which the disciples of Jesus were not free, con- 
cerning the office of the expected Messiah. It 
was with a complete understanding of this mis- 
apprehension, that Jesus now answered the 
deceived and partial mother ; " Ye know not 
what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup 
that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the 
baptism that I am baptized with? Will you 
partake wholly of my lot ; will you be able to 
adhere to me through every adversity, and share 
all my toils and dangers with me? " The brothers, 
whom in reality Jesus addressed, and through 
whose instigation it was that their mother had 
spoken to him, now answered him, under the 
persuasion that they could readily undergo a few 
trials in his service, in order to be at length 
advanced to great dignity under him, " We are 
able." How full of melancholy meaning is the 
reply of our Saviour. " Ye shall drink indeed 
of my cup, ye shall drain its full measure of 
sufferings to the dregs ; and be baptized with 
the baptism that I am baptized with, even the 
waters of violent death ; but to sit on my right 
hand and on my left, to prescribe your rank and 
degree in this world or the next, is not mine to 



JAMES THE GREATER. 93 

give ; it shall be given to those for whom it is 
prepared of my Father." As soon as the other 
disciples heard of the ambitious application of 
the sons of Zebedee, they were moved with in- 
dignation against them ; but their Master, to 
quell their rising jealousy and ill will, told them 
that the princes of the Gentiles, merely temporal 
governors, did indeed exercise that authority 
which they were so anxious to possess ; but that 
it should not be so among them, but that they 
who would be great, truly great, among them, 
should minister the most kindly to each other's 
wishes and necessities ; for in his kingdom that 
man would be chief in estimation and place, 
who was chief in benevolence, usefulness, and 
virtue. 

The brothers are again exhibited to us in no 
very amiable light. We read in the ninth chap- 
ter of the Gospel of Luke, that when the time 
approached in which Jesus was to finish his 
mission on earth, he set out to go from Galilee to 
Jerusalem ; and as his way led through Samaria, 
he sent messengers before him to a Samaritan 
village, to prepare for his hospitable reception. 
The Samaritans, knowing that he was going up 
to the feast of the Passover, and piqued that he 
should pass by their own temple, which was the 



94 JAMES THE GREATER. 

rival of that of Jerusalem, would not receive 
him. The anger of James and John was kin- 
dled by this rudeness, and they said to Jesus, 
" Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come 
down from heaven,* and consume them, even as 
Elias did? But he turned and rebuked them, 
and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit 
ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to 
destroy men's lives, but to save them." The 
evangelist adds, in words simply descriptive of 
our Saviour's gentleness and forbearance, " And 
they went to another village." 

We may collect from these notices, that James 
was disposed to be ambitious and passionate ; 
somewhat resembling Peter in these respects, as 
also in his real attachment to his Master. We 
can with difficulty suppose that his brother John 
heartily joined him on the abovementioned occa- 
sions, because his character, as we shall see 
hereafter, was of a very gentle order ; and there- 
fore it is probable that he was prevailed upon by 
the more vehement and energetic James to con- 
cur in his sentiments and projects at those times. 
It can hardly be regretted, however, that these 
exposures of human infirmity took place, when 
we advert to the excellent precepts on the sub- 
jects of ambition and revenge which they drew 



JAMES THE GREATER. 95 

from the Saviour. And it is likewise to be ob- 
served, that with all his gentleness, John had a 
great deal of zeal, and, before that zeal was 
chastened by the influence and example of his 
Master, might have often displayed it without 
knowledge. Beside which, we not unfrequently 
see, that the gentlest and most amiable have the 
keenest sense of injustice, and that when they 
are roused to indignation, they are greatly roused. 
It may have been so with John. At any rate, 
he shared with his brother in the appellation of 
Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder, which Mark, in 
his catalogue of the twelve, informs us was the 
surname bestowed on them by Jesus, and which 
seems to have reference to the heat of their tem- 
per ; though by some interpreters it is supposed 
to signify their powers of eloquence. 

In the book of Acts, we hear of James but 
once, after his name is given in the enumeration 
of the eleven apostles ; and then it is to hear of 
his death. " Herod the king stretched forth his 
hand to vex certain of the church ; and he killed 
James, the brother of John, with the sword." 
This Herod was Herod Agrippa, the grandson of 
Herod the Great, in whose reign Christ was 
born. He was a distinguished favorite of the 
Roman emperors, Caligula and his successor 



JAMES THE GREATER. 



Claudius, though a strict and zealous observer 
of the Jewish law. On entering upon his gov- 
ernment, he was desirous of doing something to 
please the Jewish populace, and for that end 
began to persecute the infant Christian church, 
selecting for a principal victim, James the brother 
of John. We are informed by Clemens Alexan- 
drinus, that as the apostle was led forth to the 
place of execution, the person who had accused 
him was so touched with the courage and con- 
stancy which he displayed, that he repented of 
what he had done, came and fell down at his 
feet, and earnestly begged pardon for what he 
had said against him. St. James tenderly raised 
him up, kissed him, and said to him, " Peace be 
to thee, my son, and the pardon of thy faults." 
At this, his former accuser publicly professed 
himself a Christian, and so both were beheaded 
at the same time. Not long after this martyr- 
dom, Herod suffered a miserable death, as is 
related in Acts, xii. 23., and more at large by 
Josephus in the nineteenth book of his Antiqui- 
ties.* 



* The three Herods are connected in an unenviable manner with 
the early history of Christianity, each as a shedder of innocent 
blood. The first, Herod the Great, murdered the Innocents of Beth- 
lehem ; the second, Herod Antipas, beheaded John the Baptist ; and 



JAMES THE GREATER. 97 

Though not the first Christian martyr, James 
was the first of the apostles who suffered martyr- 
dom ; the first among the twelve, who, in fulfil- 
ment of that solemn prediction, was called to 
drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism 
of their Master ; the first who manifested to the 
world that it was beyond the power of death itself 
to shake their fidelity to him.* If he was not 
spared to labor much for the church, he was 
soon permitted to edify it by his sufferings, and 
was called kindly and early to his reward in 
heaven. 

He is the James who is called by the Span- 
iards* St. James of Compostella, and honored 
as their patron Saint. They receive with gen- 
eral faith a wild and singular legend, which gives 
an account of the manner in which they became 
possessed of his remains. According to this story, 
the apostles at Jerusalem sent the body in a vessel 
with Ctesiphon, whom they ordained bishop of 
Spain. The vessel went directly to a port in 

the third slew James, and intended to have slain Peter. These 
circumstances are commemorated in the following Latin couplet. 

Herodes Magnus pueros, Antipa Joannem, 

Teque, Jacobe, Agrippa necat, Petrum et capit idem. 

* He is therefore called the Jlpostolic Protomartyr ; Stephen being 
the Protomartyr, or first martyr, of the whole Christian church. 
H 



98 JAMES THE GREATER. 

that kingdom, without the assistance of oars or 
pilot, guided only by its holy, though lifeless bur- 
then, which, on its arrival, was miraculously 
taken away and buried, and after a great many 
wonders, was at last translated to Compostella,* 
where it still abides, the object of constant pilgrim- 
age, and the worker of countless miracles. Cave, 
after giving this legend rather more at length, 
observes ; — " This is the sum of the account, 
call it romance or history, which I do not desire 
to impose any further upon the reader's faith than 
he shall find himself disposed to believe it." It 
is a pity that such stories as this, should be con- 
nected with the names of the holy apostles; It 
would be more a pity, however, if it were more 
difficult to separate legends from history, and 
falsehood from truth. 

Ferdinand II. of Spain instituted a military 
order in honor of this apostle. His festival is on 
the 26th of July. 

* It is said by some, that this place was first called Ad Jacobum 
Apostolumj then Giacomo Postolo j then, by contraction, Compos- 
tella. 



JOHN. 



We now come to John, the brother of James 
the elder, and the last named, though certainly 
not the last in merit, of those four friends and 
partners, the fishermen of Bethsaida. The par- 
ticulars of his call to be an apostle of Christ, 
have already been related, together with some 
other circumstances respecting him, in the lives 
of Peter and James. We have seen that he 
ardently loved his Master ; that he was distin- 
guished by that Master's peculiar regard; and 
that, although he was sometimes betrayed into 
unworthy expressions of ambition and anger, for 
which he was justly reprimanded, his disposition 
was remarkably amiable, gentle, and affection- 
ate. 

There is not much told of him, individually, 
till towards the closing scenes of our Saviour's 
ministry and life. At the last supper, which he 
and Peter had been sent to prepare, we are told 
that " there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of 



100 JOHN. 

his disciples whom Jesus loved." This disciple 
was John himself; who was so fond of the dis- 
tinction which his Master's attachment conferred 
on him, or, to speak more properly, was so grate- 
fully sensible of the value of the attachment 
itself, that he continually speaks of himself, in 
his history, as the disciple whom Jesus loved ; a 
title which he surely would not have assumed, 
unless it had been really conferred on him. His 
place at the supper is an evidence that he was 
high in the favor of Jesus. He was leaning or 
lying on his bosom ; that is, he was the next 
below him, and as it was the custom of the an- 
cients to recline at their meals, his head was 
brought in contact with his Master's breast; a 
situation which used always to be reserved by the 
host at an entertainment, for the person whom he 
most honored or esteemed. It was while he was 
thus leaning, that Simon Peter beckoned to him 
that he should ask of Jesus who it was who should 
betray him. John did as he was requested, and 
Jesus showed him who the traitor was by giving 
Judas a sop. All this seems to have been done 
in private, and apart from the knowledge of the 
other disciples, and proves the great measure 
of condescension and confidence which was ex- 
ercised by the Master toward this his favorite 
follower. 



JOHN. 101 

After Jesus was betrayed and seized, John is 
supposed to have been that other disciple, who 
went with Peter to the palace of the high priest, 
and gained him admittance there by means of 
his acquaintance with that dignitary.* However 
this may be, he was the only one of the twelve 
who had the fortitude to attend his beloved Mas- 
ter to the cross. How touchingly is it manifested 
on this awful occasion, that the softest natures 
are often the noblest and most fearless too ; and 
that those which are apparently the most daring 
and masculine, may yet shrink away in the time 
of peril and distress. Who, in that hour of 
darkness — darkness in the heavens and in the 
hearts of men ; who, in that hour of abandon- 

* " That disciple was known unto the high priest." John xviii. 15. 
The early writers busy themselves to find out in what manner John 
became acquainted with Caiaphas. Jerome says that he belonged to 
some order of nobility ; which, however, seems to be very incon- 
sistent with the occupation of his father. Nicephorus relates, that 
he sold his paternal estate in Galilee to the high priest, and with 
the money purchased a fair house in Jerusalem, and so became 
intimate with him. These stories seem to me, like many other 
similar ones, to prove two things ; one, that the early Christian 
writers were exceedingly anxious to explain the slightest hints in 
the gospel histories ; the other, that they were much too apt to write 
down the first report which came to their ears, glad to catch some- 
thing, and not careful to sift the truth, or, rather, too ready to 
sacrifice truth to the gratification of a minute and inordinate, though 
not perhaps absolutely idle, curiosity. Hence the contradictory state- 
ments with which their works are full. 



102 JOHN. 

merit, when even the Son of God cried out that 
he was forsaken ; who, of all his followers, were 
with him then, to support him by their sympathy, 
and prove to him their love? In the midst x of 
scoffing soldiers, and brutal executioners, under 
the lowering sky, and just below the frightful 
cross, we behold four weeping females,* and one 
disciple, the youngest and the gentlest of the 
twelve, braving the horrors of this place of blood, 
braving the anger of those in authority and the 
insults of those who do their bidding, determined 
to be near their friend and Master in his agonies, 
and ready, on the spot and at the moment, to share 
them. And what is it that braces up the nerves 
of this feeble company to such a singular pitch 
of fortitude and daring ? The simple, but un- 
conquerable strength of affection ; the generous 
omnipotence of their attachment and gratitude. 
In the might of their love they ascend the hill of 
Calvary, and take their station beneath the cross; 
hearing nothing amidst all that tumult, but the 
promptings of their devoted hearts ; seeing noth- 
ing but their dying Lord ; remembering nothing 

* They were Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary 
the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome the mother 
of James the Greater and of John. There were other women in 
company with them, but these four probably stood nearer the cross 
than the rest. 



JOHN. 103 

but that he was dear to them, and that he was in 
misery. Oh ! how loftily does courage like this, 
rise above that ruder and earthly courage which 
rushes to the battle field, and is crowned with 
the applauses of the world ! It calls for none of 
those excitements and stimulants from without 
which goad rough spirits into madness, but relies 
on those resources that are within, those precious 
stores and holy powers which are the strength of 
a single and faithful breast. That is the courage 
of the animal ; this is of the soul. It is pure ; it 
is divine. To say all in one word, it was such 
as moved the complacent regard of the Saviour 
himself, even in the height of his sufferings. 
Hanging on the cross, bleeding and exhausted, 
yet when he saw his mother, and the disciple 
standing by, whom he loved, he was touched by 
their constancy ; his thoughts were recalled to 
earth ; the domestic affections rushed into his 
bosom ; and with a tender care which provided at 
once a protection for his parent and a reward for 
his friend, " he saith unto his mother, Woman, 
behold thy son ! Then saith he to the disciple, 
Behold thy mother ! " Where was there ever so 
affecting a bequest as that which was then made, 
when love and filial piety triumphed over suffer- 
ing ? Where was there ever so affecting an 



104 JOHN. 

adoption as that which then took place, when 
attachment and fidelity triumphed over fear 1 
The last earthly care of Jesus was accomplished. 
His mother was confided to the disciple whom 
he best loved. The favorite disciple eagerly 
accepted the honorable and precious charge ; for, 
" from that hour," as we are told by himself, he 
" took her unto his own home." 

The whole scene is one of unrivalled pathos. 
Had it taken place in a quiet chamber, and by 
the side of a peaceful death-bed, it would have 
moved us ; but how singularly and solemnly does 
it come in, a sweet and melting interlude, in the 
midst of that wild and appalling conflict, under 
the open and frowning heaven ! It is like one 
of those hushed pauses between the fits of a 
midnight storm, when the elements wait, and 
pity seems pleading with wrath, ere the war and 
the turmoil begin again. 

It would appear that the enemies of our Lord 
were satisfied, for that time, with his destruction ; 
for we do not read that John, or the females who 
were with him, suffered any harm on account of 
their fearless exposure. It is probable also that 
the prodigies which succeeded the death of Jesus, 
deterred his executioners from pursuing any fur- 
ther their work of blood. 



JOHN. 105 

On the morning of the resurrection, Mary 
Magdalene having gone to the sepulchre early, 
and observed that the stone was taken away from 
its mouth, announced this fact to Simon Peter 
and to John, who both ran toward the spot. John 
outran Peter, and came first to the sepulchre, 
and stooping down, saw the linen clothes in which 
his Master had been buried ; but he went not in. 
Then Peter came up, and went in, and then 
John followed him. Why the latter did not go 
in immediately, does not appear from the history ; 
nor is it easy to form a conjecture ; for he was 
certainly equal to Peter, both in courage and 
attachment to his Master. Perhaps in the mere 
agitation of his feelings, he delayed till Peter 
arrived ; who no sooner came up, than, with his 
characteristic promptness, he descended into the 
sepulchre where his crucified Lord had been 
deposited, in order, it may be, that he might ask 
forgiveness even of his remains, for having so 
shamefully denied him. 

A passage in John's own account of this visit 
to the tomb of Jesus, renders it probable that he 
was the first person who believed in the resurrec- 
tion of his Lord. " Then went in also that other 
disciple, who came first to the sepulchre, and he 
saw, and believed;" that is, believed that Jesus 



106 JOHN. 

had arisen from the dead. Nor is this obvious 
interpretation contradicted by the succeeding 
verse ; " For as yet they knew not the Scripture, 
that he must rise again from the dead." By the 
word " they" is not meant Peter and John par- 
ticularly, but all the disciples. The belief was 
not yet received among them, that their Master 
was to rise from the dead ; and therefore it was 
a remarkable circumstance, and one worthy of 
being recorded, that John was the first who re- 
membered the predictions of Jesus, and acknow- 
ledged their fulfilment. So unprepared were the 
disciples for his resurrection, that Peter, who 
first saw that the tomb was empty, did not think 
of ascribing the fact to its true cause. It was 
into the mind of the beloved disciple that the 
light first broke. He first believed the glorious 
truth, that death was vanquished by the Son of 
God, and that Jesus of Nazareth was the Prince 
of Life. 

When Jesus appeared to his disciples for the 
third time after his resurrection, and at the close 
of his solemn address to Peter, intimated to him 
that he should die a violent death, that disciple, 
seeing John just behind, desired to know what 
his lot w T as to be. The answer of Jesus was, 
" If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that 



JOHN. 107 

to thee?" This answer caused a saying to go 
abroad that John should not die ; but we shall 
presently see what was the probable meaning of 
our Saviour's prophetic words. 

In the book of Acts, we again meet with John 
in company with Peter, when the lame man was 
healed at the Beautiful Gate. This act of mercy 
and divine power occasioned their imprisonment. 
They were brought together before the council 
of priests and scribes ; they were both charged 
to teach no more in the name of Jesus; they 
both nobly refused to obey ; and they were both 
dismissed by the council, who were afraid at that 
time to punish them. It is pleasing to see those 
who had formerly been partners in a lowly, but 
honest calling, thus continuing to toil hand in 
hand, in their more exalted profession of fishers 
of men. It is an exhibition of Christian friend- 
ship, which should not pass unnoticed. On one 
other occasion they were united in their holy 
labors ; when they were sent by the apostles on 
the mission to Samaria ; after which we hear no 
more of John in the historical portion of the 
Scriptures. 

All early testimonies agree, however, that he 
was spared to a great age, and outlived all the 
apostles ; earnestly occupied, while his strength 



108 JOHN. 

remained, in the service of his Master and the 
promotion of his religion. It is said by some 
writers, that he preached to the Parthians ; and 
it is certain that he dwelt for some time at Ephe- 
sus, where Mary his adopted mother, whom he 
had constantly taken care of, according to the 
solemn testament of her own son, is supposed by 
some to have ended her days. It is more proba- 
ble, however, as expressly stated by Eusebius, 
that she died before John left Judea, about fifteen 
years after the Ascension of Jesus. 

In the year of our Lord, 70, and when John 
was about seventy years of age, the destruction 
of Jerusalem, by Titus, took place. It is under- 
stood by commentators generally, that it was this 
event to which Jesus referred, when he intimated 
that John should tarry till his coming. If so, 
the prediction was remarkably fulfilled ; for this 
disciple was the only one of the twelve who lived 
to see that once proud city utterly overthrown, 
her glorious temple destroyed, and the very 
ground on which it stood, ploughed up by the 
hands of the heathen. 

Between the years 90 and 100, and in the 
reign of the emperor Domitian, he was banished 
to the Isle of Patmos, in the Egean Sea. Here 
he wrote the book of the Revelation ; and here 



JOHN. 109 

he remained till the death of Domitian, whose 
successor, Nerva, recalled those who had been 
banished for their faith in the preceding reign. 
He then returned to Ephesus, where he is said 
to have written his Gospel, and where he died a 
natural and peaceful death, at the extreme old 
age of one hundred years. According to Epi- 
phanius, he died at the age of ninety-four, in the 
one hundredth year of the Christian era ; a cal- 
culation which makes him six years younger than 
our Lord. But others say that he lived to the 
age which was first mentioned ; and others again 
assert that his life was protracted beyond that 
term. All agree, however, that he was more 
than ninety at his death. He was spared to bear 
the longest, as his brother James was called to 
bear the earliest witness, of all the apostles, to 
the truth of Christ.* 

He left several writings behind him, which 
have been preserved in the church from age to 
age, and which of themselves bear witness to 
the affectionate mildness of his character. His 



* So respectable a writer as Chrysostom asserts, in one of his 
sermons, that John was an hundred years old when he wrote his 
Gospel, and that he lived twenty years afterwards. But this is 
worthy of but little credit. Again, many of the ancients entertained 
the notion that this apostle never died, but was translated like Enoch 
and Elias. 



X10 JOHN. 

Gospel was written after the three others ; which 
accounts for its omitting many things which they 
relate, and relating many things which they omit 
It is John alone who tells us of the resurrection 
of Lazarus ; of Christ's washing his disciples' 
feet; and especially of those divine discourses 
which he held with them just before he was 
betrayed, and which were treasured up in the 
faithful memory and kindred heart of the beloved 
disciple, with a minuteness which proves how 
deeply he had been impressed by them. s 

The book of the Revelation, which antiquity 
also ascribes to John, though not with an entirely 
unanimous voice, has both exercised and baffled 
as much critical ingenuity and research as ever 
were bestowed on any writing in the world. The 
majority of its interpreters have regarded it as a 
series of particular prophecies; and these sup- 
posed prophecies have been applied to so many 
events, past and to come, that the reader is at 
last convinced that the truth does not even lie 
between the differing hypotheses. It may be, 
that its splendid visions are really of a prophetic 
nature, and that they are not yet accomplished. 
But perhaps the most rational theory is that 
which several learned men have adopted, and 
which supposes that the whole book of the Reve- 



JOHN. Ill 

lation is a general prediction, in the form of a 
religious drama, of the glorious success of Chris- 
tianity in the world, and its triumph over its 
numerous foes, without any reference to the 
political condition of certain states and empires, 
or to the downfall of particular hierarchies or 
heresies. This opinion has been explained and 
supported by the German professor, Eichorn, in 
a commentary on the Revelation ; and in earlier 
times had been maintained by able expositors, 
and espoused by no less a man than the poet 
Milton, who thus speaks in his Reason of Church 
Government urged against Prelaty. " And the 
Apocalypse of St. John is the majestic image of 
a high and stately tragedy, shutting up and in- 
termingling her solemn scenes and acts with a 
sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping sym- 
phonies ; and this my opinion, the grave authority 
of Pareus, commenting that book, is sufficient 
to confirm." But whatever difference there may 
be concerning the intention of this book, there 
can be none with regard to its composition. It 
is undoubtedly a magnificent specimen of holy 
poetry ; and reminds us more constantly and 
strongly of the sublimest of the Jewish prophe- 
cies, than any other book in the canon of the 
New Testament. 



112 JOHN. 

Beside the two works already named, we have 
three epistles appearing in the Christian Scrip- 
tures as the productions of the apostle John. 
That he wrote the one which is called the first, 
there has never been any dispute ; it is univer- 
sally, and by the best authorities, ascribed to him. 
But the genuineness of the two others was ques- 
tioned at a very early period ; though the balance 
in their favor appeared so great, that they were ad- 
mitted into our present collection of sacred books. 
The controversy need not trouble us, however ; as 
the two latter epistles, beside being very short, con- 
tain nothing of consequence which is not likewise 
contained in substance, and almost precisely in 
expression, in the first. This first epistle ex- 
hibits in a more striking light, than do the rest 
of his writings, his great amiableness of dispo- 
sition. It is throughout an exhortation ; an ex- 
hortation from the heart and soul and mind and 
strength of the writer, to pure, exalted, Christian 
benevolence ; and its whole drift and spirit may 
be expressed in this single passage from the fourth 
chapter ; " God is love ; and he that dwelleth in 
love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 

His merits as a writer, are sententiously ex- 
pressed in a passage from Jerome, who says, 
that " he was at once Apostle, Evangelist, and 



JOHN. 113 

Prophet : — Apostle, in that he wrote letters to 
the Churches, as a master ; Evangelist, as he 
wrote a book of the Gospel which no other of the 
twelve apostles did, except St. Matthew ; Prophet, 
as he saw the revelation in the island Patmos, 
where he was banished by Domitian. His Gos- 
pel, too, differs from the rest. Like an eagle he 
ascends to the very throne of God, and says, In 
the beginning was the Word." 

To John, as well as to most of the apostles of 
Christ, are attributed by antiquity both writings 
and actions which are probably apocryphal and 
fabulous. It would be useless for me even to 
give the titles of the former. Of the traditions 
of his actions and miracles, one of the most gen- 
erally known and quoted, is the story, that, during 
the persecution under Domitian, and just before 
the exile of John to Patmos, he was brought to 
Rome, and there thrown into a cauldron of boiling 
oil, from which he came out altogether unhurt. 
In the pictures of him by the old painters, he is 
often represented as holding a cup or goblet, 
from which a serpent is rearing its head. This 
accompaniment refers to another legend respect- 
ing him, by one Prochorus, who tells us that 
some heretics having presented the apostle with 
a cup of poisoned liquor, he made the sign of the 



114 JOHN. 

cross over it, and all the venom was immediately 
expelled from the vessel, embodied in the visible 
form of a serpent.* 

Stories of this kind would naturally be multi- 
plied in that, or indeed in any age, concerning 
persons whose lives were singularly out of the 
common course, and who were in reality gifted 
with the power of working miracles. The ancient 
writers and fathers were too apt to promulgate 
such legends, without distinguishing them, as care- 
fully as they ought to have done, from accounts 
which were worthy of credit ; and the church, 
finding how ready, and even eager, the multitude 
were to receive every tale of wonder, made it a 
part of its policy to cherish their credulity and 
strengthen their delusion. But we, who are of 
a more simple taste, require no such means to 
interest us in the history of a person, in every 
way so interesting as the " disciple whom Jesus 
loved." 

One of the best authenticated stories of his 
latter days, which is further recommended by 
its conformity with the known gentleness and 

* There is also general]} 7 introduced in the pictures of this saint 
the figure of an eagle. This is because he is supposed to be men- 
tioned in the book of the Revelation, as the last of the " four beasts " 
near the throne, who was " like a flying eagle." We have seen 
above, also, that Jerome compares him to an eagle. 



JOHN. 115 

amiableness of his character, cannot but please 
all readers, and I will therefore insert it. It is 
said that when the infirmities of age so grew 
upon him at Ephesus, that he was no longer able 
to preach to his converts, he used, at every public 
meeting, to be led to the church, and say no 
more to them, than these words, " Little children, 
love one another." And when his auditors, 
wearied with the constant repetition of the same 
thing, asked him why he always said this and 
nothing more to them, he answered, " Because 
it was the command of our Lord, and that if 
they did nothing else, this alone was enough." 

" Such," says Dr. Watts, in one of his sermons, 
" Such was John the beloved disciple. You may 
read the temper of his soul in his epistles. What 
a spirit of love breathes in every line ! What 
compassion and tenderness to the babes in Christ ! 
What condescending affection to the young men, 
and hearty goodwill to the father , who were then 
his equals in age ! With what obliging language 
does he treat the beloved Gaius, in his third 
letter; and with how much civility and hearty 
kindness does he address the elect lady and her 
children, in the second ! In his younger years, 
indeed, he seems to have had something more of 



116 



JOHN. 



fire and vehemence, for which he was surnamed 
A son of thunder. But our Lord saw so much 
good temper in him, mixed with that sprightliness 
and zeal, that he expressed much pleasure in 
his company, and favored him with peculiar 
honors and endearments above the rest. This is 
the disciple who was taken into the holy mount 
with James and Peter, and saw our Lord glorified 
before the time. This is the disciple who leaned 
on his bosom at the holy supper, and was in- 
dulged in the utmost freedom of conversation 
with his Lord. This is the man who obtained 
this glorious title, * The disciple whom Jesus 
loved ; ' that is, with a distinguishing and par- 
ticular love. As a Saviour, he loved them all 
like saints, but as a man he loved St. John like 
a friend ; and when hanging upon the cross, and 
just expiring, he committed his mother to his 
care, a most precious and convincing pledge of 
special friendship. 

" O how happy are the persons who most 
nearly resemble this apostle, who are thus privi- 
leged, thus divinely blessed! Hov infinitely are 
ye indebted to God, your benefactor and your 
Father, who has endowed you with so many 
valuable accomplishments on earth, and assures 



JOHN. 117 

you of the happiness of heaven ! It is he who 
has made you fair or wise ; it is he who has 
given you ingenuity, or riches, or perhaps has 
favored you with all these ; and yet has weaned 
your hearts from the love of this world, and led 
you to the pursuit of eternal life. It is he that 
has cast you in so refined a mould, and given 
you so sweet a disposition ; that has inclined you 
to sobriety and every virtue, has raised you to 
honor and esteem, has made you possessors of all 
that is desirable in this life, and appointed you a 
nobler inheritance in that which is to come. 
What thankfulness does every power of your na- 
tures owe to your God ! that heaven looks down 
upon you and loves you, and the world around you 
fix their eyes upon you and love you ; that God 
has formed you in so bright a resemblance of his 
own Son, his first-beloved, and has ordained you 
joint heirs of heaven with him." 

Beside the affectionate title which so peculiarly 
connects this disciple with his Master, he is styled 
by ancient writers, " John the Divine," on ac- 
count of the sublimity and spirituality of his 
writings. 

His day is December 27, in the Roman Cal- 
endar ; but the Greeks keep it on the 26th of 



118 JOHN. 

September. And it may here be observed, that 
the Roman and Greek Calendars differ from each 
other in their dates throughout the ecclesiastical 
year. 






PHILIP. 



The fifth named on Matthew's catalogue of 
the apostles is Philip. He was a native of Beth- 
saida, and consequently a townsman of the four 
partners, whose histories I have already told. 
" Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of An- 
drew and Peter." We have no certain intelli- 
gence of his parentage or condition, though he 
was probably in the same rank of life with Peter 
and Andrew, James and John, and perhaps of 
the same profession. 

The day after Peter and Andrew had be- 
come disciples of Christ, we read that " Jesus 
would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, 
and saith unto him, Follow me." Though 
Peter and Andrew were the first who appear 
to have attended on the instructions of Jesus, 
and to have been particularly noticed by him, 
and are therefore termed his first disciples 
— and though Andrew is styled Protoclctos, 
as having been the first, whose name we know, 
who was invited to visit him and converse with 



120 PHILIP. 

him — it is certain that the distinction belongs 
to PhUip of having been the first who re- 
ceived that express and authoritative call to 
the apostleship, " Follow me." We find this 
account in the latter portion of the first chapter 
of John's Gospel. And we then read, further, 
that " Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto 
him, We have found him of whom Moses in the 
law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Naza- 
reth, the son of Joseph." His conduct in this 
instance is like that of Andrew ; as he manifested 
the same readiness to acknowledge Jesus as the 
Messiah, and the same zeal to make known his 
discovery to others. 

This faith and zeal, however, do not continue 
to be, if we may judge from what little the Gos- 
pels relate of Philip, so firm and ardent afterwards 
as they seem to have been at first. When Jesus, 
in order to prove him, asked him where bread 
enough could be bought to feed the five thousand 
who were gathered together on the mountain, 
Philip, either not remembering the miraculous 
power of his Master, or not yet fully convinced 
of its reality, entered into a calculation, and re- 
turned, for answer, that two hundred pennyworth 
of bread would not be sufficient to supply every 
one with a little. And at the last supper, when our 



121 



Lord was discoursing so divinely to his disciples, 
and had said to them that if they had known 
him properly, they would have known his Father, 
whom very soon they would both know and see, 
Philip was so entirely unconscious of his mean- 
ing, and so blind, notwithstanding his long inti- 
macy with Jesus, so blind to the presence and 
agency of God in this, his beloved Son, as to say 
to his Master, " Lord, show us the Father, and 
it sufnceth us." Grieved at his dulness and in- 
sensibility, Jesus returns that sadly reproachful 
answer, " Have I been so long time with you, 
and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? He 
that hath seen me, hath seen the Father ; and 
how sayest thou then, Show us the Father ? 
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and 
the Father in me ? The words that I speak unto 
you, I speak not of myself; but the Father that 
dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." As if he 
had said, Is it not evident to you that the power 
which you have seen me exert, is more than 
human power ? that the wisdom which you have 
so long been hearing from my lips, is more than 
human wisdom 1 that the Father must have been 
with me, and in me, all this time, or I could not 
have thus acted and spoken ? How can you then, 
who have been one of my constant companions, 



122 PHILIP. 

how can you say, Show us the Father ? As a 
Jew, you certainly do not expect to see God in 
person ; and how can you behold a brighter 
manifestation of his image and attributes, than 
that which you have so long beheld in me ? You 
do not know me, Philip, neither me nor my 
Father. 

This instance of the apostle's incredulity and 
slowness of apprehension, does not prove that he 
was more incredulous and dull than his brethren ; 
it only shows how small the impression was which 
the extraordinary instructions and actions of Je- 
sus had as yet produced on the whole twelve. 
They entered into his service with the Jewish 
ideas of a Messiah ; and now, when he was just 
about to leave them, they were almost as ignorant 
of the spirituality of his kingdom, as when they 
first joined themselves to him. 

Nothing further is said in the sacred histories 
to assist us in elucidating Philip's character. 
The book of Acts relates nothing concerning him ; 
for we must not confound Philip the Apostle, with 
Philip the Deacon, or Philip the Evangelist, both 
of whom are there mentioned. The best ancient 
testimony specifies Scythia as the principal scene 
of his apostolical labors ; from which country he 
came at last into Phrygia, and dwelt in Hierapo- 



PHILIP; 123 

lis, the chief city in the western part of that 
province.* There he preached the Gospel of 
his Master, and planted the seeds of faith in the 
midst of idolatry ; and it is said by some, that it 
was by effecting the destruction of an object of 
superstitious worship, that he incurred the hatred 
and persecution of a part of the inhabitants, 
who caused him to be imprisoned and severely 
scourged, and then hung by the neck to a pillar. 
By others, however, he is said to have died a 
natural death. 

By a concurrence of authorities, Philip is stated 
to have been a married man, and to have had 
several daughters. 

The festival of this apostle, according to the 
Calendar of the Western Church, is on the first 
of May. 

* This city is mentioned by Paul, in his epistle to the < 'olossians, 
iv. 13. It was near to Colosse and Laodicea, and had probably been 
visited by Paul. 



BARTHOLOMEW. 



The next in order of the twelve is Bartholo- 
mew. Respecting him there is a still greater 
dearth of information, than there is respecting 
Philip ; for there is absolutely nothing told* of him 
in the New Testament, unless we resort to the 
supposition, which many scholars have adopted, 
that he is the same person with Nathanael. In 
favor of this supposition there are several argu- 
ments, which form together a body of strong 
presumptive evidence. 

It is observed, in the first place, that the evan- 
gelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, who all place 
Bartholomew on their catalogues of the apostles, 
never mention Nathanael ; and that John, who 
gives the particulars of NathanaePs conversation 
with our Lord, never mentions Bartholomew. 
Secondly, as John acquaints us with the fact, that 
Philip led Nathanael to Jesus, so in the lists of 
the apostles by the other evangelists, Philip and 
Bartholomew are constantly joined together as 



BARTHOLOMEW. 125 

companions. " As they were jointly called to 
the discipleship," says Cave, " so they are jointly 
referred in the Apostolic Catalogue, as afterwards 
we find them joint companions in the writings of 
the church." Thirdly, it is remarked, that Na- 
thanael is introduced, in the company of several 
apostles, in the twenty-first chapter of John's Gos- 
pel, in such a manner as to lead us to suppose that 
he likewise might be one. The passage is that 
which relates to the appearance of Jesus, after 
his resurrection, at the sea of Tiberias ; on which 
occasion Peter swam to him from the vessel in 
which he and the rest were fishing. The disci- 
ples, who were present, are thus named ; " There 
were together, Simon Peter, and Thomas, called 
Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and 
the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disci- 
ples." Fourthly, the difference in the two names, 
which may at first appear to be an argument 
against this supposition, is rather in its favor. 
Bartholomew signifies the son of Tolmai, just as 
Bartimeus, the blind man whom Jesus restored to 
sight, signifies the son of Timeus ; bar being the 
Hebrew word for son. Nathanael, therefore, 
might have also been called Bartholomew, after 
his father, just as Simon was also called Barjonas 
after his father. Bartholomew could hardly have 



126 BARTHOLOMEW. 

been the only name of the apostle, because it is a 
patronymic ; and when circumstances agree so 
well, why might not his first name have been 
Nathanael? That John never calls Nathanael by 
the other name of Bartholomew, is no proof that 
he had no other name ; for Matthew, though his 
other name was Levi, never calls himself by that 
name, throughout the whole of his own Gospel. 
And finally, we are led naturally to the presump- 
tion that Nathanael must have been an apostle, 
not only by the circumstance of his being named 
in the midst of four apostles, but by the tenor of 
the conversation which Jesus held with him, and 
the probability that he was one of the very 
earliest disciples. 

If we are convinced by these considerations 
that Bartholomew was the same person with 
Nathanael, we of course know something of his 
character and history. We view him as an 
inhabitant of Cana, in Galilee, where was per- 
formed the first miracle of his Lord, soon after 
his interview with him ; as probably called to be 
an apostle on the same day with Philip, by whom 
he was introduced to Jesus ; and as one who was 
characterized by the Saviour, and therefore de- 
servedly, as an " Israelite indeed, in whom there 
was no guile." 



BARTHOLOMEW. 127 

The guilelessness, candor, and honesty of Na- 
thanael, or Bartholomew, were indeed strikingly 
exhibited in all the circumstances of that inter- 
view. Impressed with the idea of his countrymen, 
that Nazareth could not furnish any celebrated 
prophet, and surely not the Messiah, as soon as 
Philip uttered the words, " Jesus of Nazareth, 
the son of Joseph," he exclaimed, " Can there 
any good thing come out of Nazareth?" But 
when Philip, very wisely, instead of arguing the 
point, simply said, "Come and see," he went at 
once, clearly perceiving the justice of the appeal, 
and determined to put his prejudice, or his opinion, 
to the only proper test of experiment. And when 
he had received a small, though to his mind 
sufficient proof of the superior knowledge of 
Jesus, he gave in his adhesion on the spot, saying 
" Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art the 
king of Israel." Pleased with this readiness of 
conviction, the Saviour seems to have taken him 
from this moment into his confidence ; for he 
promised him that he should " see greater things 
than these;" stronger proofs than the one just 
given of the divinity of his mission; wonders and 
testimonies so mighty and divine, that heaven 
would appear, as it were, " open, and the angels 
of God ascending and descending upon the Son 
of man." 



128 BARTHOLOMEW. 

Let our prepossessions and prejudices vanish, 
as did those of Nathan ael, as soon as they are 
touched by the beams of truth. Let us be sin- 
cere, simple, open-hearted, free from guile, as he 
was ; " without partiality and without hypocrisy." 
To such a character belongs by inheritance the 
promise given to Nathanael. He who possesses 
it will see greater things day by day; he will be 
continually receiving brighter manifestations of 
truth and heaven. 

" The child-like faith, that asks not sight, 
Waits not for wonder or for sign, 
Believes, because it loves, aright — 
Shall see things greater, things divine. 

" Heaven on that gaze shall open wide, 
And brightest angels to and fro 
On messages of love shall glide 

'Twixt God above, and Christ below." 

Nothing is particularly related concerning this 
apostle, by the sacred writers, beside what has 
been already adduced. By early ecclesiastical 
historians, he is said to have carried the Gospel 
as far as India, by which must be meant, as Cave 
thinks, the hither India, which was the country 
bordering upon the Asian Ethiopia, or Chaldea. 
Pantaenus, a Christian philosopher of the latter 
part of the second century, and preceptor of 



BARTHOLOMEW. 129 

Clemens of Alexandria, having travelled into 
Ethiopia, found there, as Eusebius relates, a copy 
of Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew, which had been 
left there by Bartholomew. Phrygia was also for 
a time the field of the apostle's labors, where he 
met with his former companion, Philip, and at 
the period of his martyrdom, narrowly escaped 
crucifixion himself. Lastly, he came to Albano- 
polis in the greater Armenia, where he was 
persecuted, and finally crucified, on account of 
his efforts to overthrow the idolatry of the place. 
Some accounts speak of his having been flayed 
alive, previous to his crucifixion. 

Legends and martyrologies affirm, what we 
need not believe, that his body removed from 
place to place, till it came at last to Rome, where 
it rested, and where it is now deposited, as Ro- 
man Catholics suppose, in a porphyry monument, 
under the Church of St. Bartholomew. 

August the 24th is consecrated to him by the 
Western Church. 



THOMAS. 



The seventh of the twelve is Thomas. In the 
Gospel of John, he is styled " Thomas called 
Didymus," but every where else, simply Thomas. 
It is probable that Didymus is merely an interpre- 
tation into Greek of the Hebrew word Thomas, 
as they both mean a twin. And it may be, that 
he really was what his name designates him to 
have been.* But we have no certain accounts 
whatever of his early life, nor of the early period 
of his apostleship. 

* " It was customary," says Cave, " with the Jews, when travel- 
ling into foreign countries, or familiarly conversing with the Greeks 
and Romans, to assume to themselves a Greek or a Latin name, of 
great affinity, and sometimes of the very same signification with 
that of their own country. Thus our Lord was called Christ, an- 
swering to his Hebrew title, Mashiach, or the Anointed : Simon styled 
Peter according to that of Cephas, which our Lord put upon him ; 
TabitJia called Dorcas, both signifying a goat. Thus our St. Thomas, 
according to the Syriack importance of his name, had the title of 
Didymus, which signifies a Twin: Thomas, which is called Didij- 
mus." 



THOMAS. 131 

The first mention which is made of him, is on 
a most interesting occasion, and when he appears 
in a most interesting light. Shortly after our 
Lord had escaped from the hands of the Jews, 
who were about to stone him, and had gone away 
beyond Jordan, the sisters of Lazarus, his friend, 
sent to him, informing him that their brother was 
sick. Jesus remained two days, after hearing 
this intelligence, in the place where he was ; for 
it was his intention, not to rescue, but to restore 
Lazarus from death, that God might be the more 
glorified ; and then he said to his disciples, " Let 
us go into Judea again." His disciples earnestly 
sought to dissuade him from this, as they thought 
it, rash determination, and said unto him, " Mas- 
ter, the Jews of late sought to stone thee ; and 
goest thou thither again?" In answer to this 
expostulation, Jesus tells them, in figurative 
speech, that what he had to do must be done in 
its due season, and before the appropriated time 
was past; and then he adds, " Our friend Laza- 
rus sleepeth ; but I go that I may awake him out 
of sleep." The disciples, understanding him 
literally, answer, that if Lazarus was sleeping, 
he would recover, and therefore it was unneces- 
sary to incur danger, merely for the sake of 
seeing him. " Then said Jesus unto them, 



132 THOMAS. 

plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for 
your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye 
may believe ; nevertheless, let us go unto him." 
It is at this crisis, when the apostles seem to be 
hesitating between the sense of imminent danger, 
and the feeling of duty to their Master, the one 
holding them back, and the other urging them 
forward, that Thomas advances, faithful, bold, 
and with a mind made up to abide by Jesus at 
all hazards, and says unto his fellow disciples, 
" Let us also go, that we may die with him." 
His intrepidity in this case had its effect, no 
doubt, on his brethren ; for they all went to 
Bethany, the village of Lazarus, which was only 
about two miles from Jerusalem, and the result 
was one of the most remarkable and important 
miracles of our Lord ; which was soon followed 
indeed, as the disciples had feared, and as he 
had foreseen, by his own violent death. 

Thomas is again introduced as one of the 
speakers on the night of the last supper. As 
Jesus was discoursing to his disciples, endeav- 
ouring to prepare them for his approaching 
departure, and to lead them to the sublime and 
consoling truths of immortality, he said to them, 
" Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." 
Thomas, who, no more than the rest, could be- 



THOMAS. 133 

lieve, that the Messiah was to die, and to be 
taken from the world, before he had achieved his 
expected glories, and the deliverance of Israel, 
said to him, " Lord, we know not whither thou 
goest; and how can we know the way?" His 
thoughts had not accompanied his Master's 
thoughts ; they were yet on the earth, groping 
about there after a destination and a path, though 
Jesus was pointing so plainly to the mansions of 
another world, and the true and spiritual way 
which led to them. And it was immediately 
afterwards that Philip, too, uttered those words 
of ignorance, which we have just now considered, 
and which show how much that light was needed, 
which was soon to break in upon them all. 

Once more we hear of Thomas, in a manner 
which marks his character with some strong 
lines, and particularly distinguishes his life. On 
the evening of the resurrection, our Saviour 
came and stood in the midst of the disciples, and 
showed them the wounds in his hands and side, 
and satisfied them that he was indeed risen from 
the dead. But Thomas was not then with them, 
and when they told him that they had seen the 
Lord, he replied, that unless he not only should 
see those wounds, but be allowed also to touch 
them and put his hand in them, he would not 
believe. 



184 THOMAS. 

There is a boldness and even obstinacy in this 
resolution, which at first is apt to offend us ; but 
on reflection we may find that it was neither 
harsh nor unreasonable. He could not have 
refused his belief as he did, through a want of 
respect or affection for his Master ; because he 
had but a short time before expressed his readi- 
ness to die with him. Neither did he hold in 
too slight regard the testimony of his brethren, 
considering the circumstances; for it was no 
common matter to which they testified ; in almost 
any other case he would have believed their re- 
port, or the report oi a single one of their num- 
ber, but now, the event which they related was 
too marvellous in itself, and too momentous in 
its consequences, to be received on the witness 
of men who might not wish to deceive, but who 
nevertheless might themselves be deceived or 
mistaken ; and he would trust to nothing but his 
own senses to bring him decisive evidence of an 
occurrence on which the direction of his whole 
future life depended. 

He thought "too, no doubt, that he ought to be 
satisfied of this wonderful fact as well as the rest 
of the disciples, and in the same way ; and he 
was unquestionably right in so thinking. If he 
was hereafter to journey through the world, 



THOMAS. 135 

teaching and asserting, with all his powers, and 
in the face of every peril, the resurrection of 
Jesus the Christ, it was needful that he should 
possess a deep conviction of the reality of that 
event, such a conviction as, in the capacity of a 
companion, friend, pupil, and apostle of Jesus, 
he ought to have, and such a conviction as the 
world would surely require of him. The miracle 
had just occurred, as his brethren told him ; if 
so, why should not he, standing in the same 
situation as they did, and to whom its truth was 
as important as to them, why should not he 
have the same evidence as they did ; nay, why 
should he not have more ? Why should he not, 
not only on his own account, but as their repre- 
sentative, demand the opportunity of clearing 
away every shadow of doubt which might rest on 
so splendid a truth, both by seeing his risen Lord 
as they had, and touching him with his hands as 
they had not? 

If we regard the incredulity of Thomas in this 
light, we shall see nothing improper in it, and 
shall be disposed to grant, that it was no greater 
than, in his situation, was natural and justifiable. 
In this conclusion we are countenanced by the 
conduct of our Saviour himself, who neither re- 
fuses to show himself to his doubting disciple, 



136 THOMAS. 

nor manifests any displeasure at his freedom or 
his unbelief; for the narration of the occurrence 
is thus continued by St. John : " And after eight 
days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas 
with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being 
shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be 
unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach 
hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and 
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side ; 
and be not faithless but believing." Startled, 
doubtless, by the sudden appearance of his Mas- 
ter, and affected too by the kind and assuring 
manner in which he is bid to satisfy his doubts 
completely, Thomas broke out into the exclamation 
of wonder and acknowledgment, " My Lord and 
my God! " His doubts were entirely overcome, 
his faith was now as ardent and lively as before 
his distrust had been cold; and his testimony 
to the reality of the resurrection is perhaps more 
valuable than any other single testimony, because 
it was rendered under such peculiar circum- 
stances, and by one so honest and so sturdy in 
avowing his scruples, and so candid in resigning 
them. " By touching, in Christ," says one of 
the fathers, " the wounds of the flesh, he has 
healed, in us, the wounds of unbelief." 



THOMAS. 137 

The exclamation of Thomas, quoted above, 
has held so conspicuous a place, and been so 
often brought forward in theological controversy, 
that 1 must necessarily dwell for a moment on 
the consideration of its import. By many, though 
by no means by all of those who hold the doctrine 
of the perfect equality of the Son with the Father, 
it has been adduced as a Scripture proof of that 
equality; as an acknowledgment by the apostle 
of the godhead and supreme divinity of Jesus 
Christ. To this interpretation of the passage, 
there seem to me to be insurmountable objec- 
tions. In the first place, the question of the Deity 
of Christ has no concern with the event. It was 
not to be satisfied of the Deity, but of the resur- 
rection of his Master, that Thomas required his 
appearance ; and it was to convince him of that 
resurrection, that his Master condescended to 
appear to him. " Except I shall see in his hands 
the print of the nails, and put my finger into the 
print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his 
side, I will not believe." Believe what? What 
the disciples had just told him, certainly, that 
they had seen the Lord, that he was truly alive, 
not that he was truly God. Secondly, it is diffi- 
cult to conceive how the appearance of Jesus in 
a human form, just as he had always appeared 



138 



THOMAS. 



before, and with bodily wounds, just as he had 
been taken from the cross, that is, as a man in all 
respects, could have convinced his disciple, and 
that disciple a Jew, that he was the eternal God. 
The miracle of the resurrection itself could not 
have had this effect, because Thomas had often 
witnessed the miracles of his Master, without once 
confessing that he was God ; and no other evi- 
dence was at this time offered. Thirdly, if Jesus 
was on this occasion acknowledged to be God, it 
might be expected that the writer of the narrative 
should take some notice of the circumstance ; but 
what are his words, immediately after relating 
this event? "These are written,' that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
God; " not God himself. Fourthly, the exclama- 
tion itself is abrupt, and without any connexion 
to determine precisely its meaning. It might 
not have been addressed to Jesus at all, but to 
God alone; or the first appellation might have 
been addressed to him, and the second to Heav- 
en ; it was an exclamation, in short, of wonder, 
of extatic wonder, of extatic gratitude, and just 
such a one as any of us would be likely to utter 
on witnessing a similar marvel ; such, for instance 
as the resurrection of a dear friend from the 
grave. Fifthly, if the whole exclamation was 



THOMAS. 139 

really addressed to Jesus, the term God might 
well have been applied, according to known Jew- 
ish usage, and in its lower sense, to one who now 
had manifested undeniably that he was the Mes- 
siah, the Prince of Peace, the Son of God, and 
the King of Israel. Lastly, the answer of Jesus 
himself excludes ihe supposition that he was ad- 
dressed as the Supreme God. For he said unto 
his disciple, "Thomas, because thou hast seen 
me thou hast believed ; blessed are they that have 
not seen, and yet have believed." Now this must 
mean, "Because thou hast seen me here alive, 
after my crucifixion and burial, thou hast believed 
that I am raised from the dead; and it is well; 
but blessed are they who cannot have such evi- 
dence of the senses, and yet shall believe in the 
glorious truth, from your evidence, and that of 
your brethren." He could not have meant, that 
they were blessed, who, though they had not seen 
him, yet had believed that he was God; because 
there is no connexion between the propositions; 
because the fact of the resurrection of Jesus can- 
not, to the mind of any one, be of itself a proof 
of his Deity; and, because no one thinks of re- 
quiring to see God, in order to believe that he 
exists. In conclusion, it must be remembered, 
that these considerations are so obvious, that they 



140 THOMAS. 

have been fully adopted by some of those who 
still have professed their belief, founded on other 
evidence, of the Deity of Christ. 

It cannot be doubted that the decided and 
resolute character of Thomas, fitted him emi- 
nently for his apostolic duties. But the accounts 
which we have of his life and works after the 
ascension of his Master, though sufficiently co- 
pious, are too contradictory to claim our entire 
confidence. Some general facts, however, seem 
to be well established, and they are of an exceed- 
ingly interesting character. There is no good 
reason to doubt, that this apostle penetrated as 
far into the East with his heavenly mission, as to 
the Coromandel and Malabar Coasts of Indostan, 
and even to Taprobane, or Ceylon, visiting and 
preaching in other countries by the way. On 
those coasts he made a great number of converts, 
the descendants of whom, still professing Chris- 
tianity, exist in that part of India at the present 
day, and are called the St. Thomas Christians, 
according to the testimony of Dr. Buchanan, 
Bishop Heber, and other enlightened travellers. 
This is a remarkable confirmation of the general 
statements of early ecclesiastical writers ; and is 
a proof that we may receive many of their princi- 
pal facts, without relying on their minute details 



THOMAS. 141 

or marvellous legends. These Christians of St. 
Thomas were known to the western world in 
early times, but appear to have been lost sight of 
afterwards, till they were again discovered by 
navigators at the commencement of the sixteenth 
century. The see of Rome endeavoured to bring 
them under its subjection, but with only partial 
success. A part of them are now Roman Cath- 
olics, but the majority form a church entirely 
independent of the church of Rome. They pos- 
sess the New Testament in the Syriac language. 

The martyrdom of Thomas is stated to have 
taken place at Malipur or Meliapor, on the Coro- 
mandel coast, not far from the present city of 
Madras, where he had converted the king of the 
country, and many of his subjects, and had built 
a church. The Brahmins were enraged at his 
success, and by one of them he was run through 
the body with a lance, while he was kneeling at 
his devotions before a tomb. He was buried in 
the church which he had built ; but his bones 
are said to have been afterwards translated to 
Edessa in Mesopotamia. 

The following narrative by Bishop Heber, 
touching these events in the life of St. Thomas, 
is taken from his Journal in India, vol. iii. pages 
212-214. 



142 



" We went in a carriage to the military station 
of St. Thomas' Mount, eight miles from Madras, 
intending, in our way, to visit the spot marked 
out by tradition as the place where the Apostle 
St. Thomas was martyred. Unfortunately the 
' little Mount,' as this is called, (being a small 
rocky knoll with a Roman Catholic Church on 
it, close to M arm along bridge in the suburb of 
Meilapoor,) is so insignificant, and so much nearer 
Madras than we had been given to understand, 
that it did not attract our attention until too late. 
That it really is the place, I see no good reason 
for doubting ; there is as fair historical evidence 
as the case requires, that St. Thomas preached 
the Gospel in India, and was martyred at a place 
named Milliapoor or Meilapoor. The eastern 
Christians, whom the Portuguese found in India, 
all agreed in marking out this as the spot, and in 
saying that the bones, originally buried here, had 
been carried away as relics to Syria. They and 
even the surrounding heathen, appear to have 
always venerated the spot, as these last still do, 
and to have offered gifts here on the supposed 
anniversary of his martyrdom. And as the story 
contains nothing improbable from beginning to 
end, (except a trumpery fabrication of some relics 
found here by the Portuguese monks about a 



THOMAS. 143 

century and a half ago,) so it is not easy to ac- 
count for the origin of such a story among men 
of different religions, unless there were some 
foundation for it. 

" I know it has been sometimes fancied that 
the person who planted Christianity in India was a 
Nestorian Bishop named Thomas, not St. Thomas 
the Apostle ; but this rests, absolutely, on no foun- 
dation but a supposition, equally gratuitous and 
contrary to all early ecclesiastical history, that 
none of the Apostles except St. Paul went far 
from Judea. To this it is enough to answer, 
that we have no reason why they should not have 
done so ; or why, while St. Paul went, or intended 
to go, to the shores of the further west, St. Thomas 
should not have been equally laborious and en- 
terprising in an opposite direction. But that all 
the Apostles, except the two St. Jameses, did 
really go forth to preach the Gospel in different 
parts of the world, as it was, a prioj'i, to be ex- 
pected, so that they did so we have the authority 
of Eusebius and the old Martyrologies, which is 
at least as good as the doubts of a later age, and 
which would be reckoned conclusive if the ques- 
tion related to any point of civil history. Nor 
must it be forgotten, that there were Jews settled 
in India at a very early period, to convert whom 



144 THO.MAS. 

would naturally induce an Apostle to think of 
coming hither ; that the passage either from the 
Persian Gulf, or the Red Sea, is neither long nor 
difficult, and was then extremely common ; and 
that it may be, therefore, as readily believed that 
St. Thomas was slain at Meilapoor, as that St. 
Paul was beheaded at Rome, or that Leonidas 
fell at Thermopylae. Under these feelings, I left 
the spot behind with regret, and shall visit it if 
I return to Madras, with a reverent, though, I 
hope, not a superstitious interest and curiosity. 

" The larger Mount, as it is called, of St. 
Thomas, is a much more striking spot, being an 
insulated cliff of granite, with an old church on 
the summit, the property of those Armenians who 
are united to the church of Rome. It is also 
dedicated to St. Thomas, but (what greatly proves 
the authenticity of its rival) none of the sects of 
Christians or Hindoos consider it as having been 
in any remarkable manner graced by his presence 
or burial. It is a picturesque little building, and 
commands a fine view." 

A legend is quoted by Cave from Gregory of 
Tours, concerning the tomb of this Apostle at 
Malipur, which, though deserving of no more 
credit than other legends of the same class, is 
pleasing to the imagination. A lamp, says the 



THOMAS. 145 

legend, hangs before his tomb, which burns per- 
petually, needing no oil, and undisturbed by the 
wind or any accident whatever. — Possibly a 
gaseous fountain might once have existed there, 
which would be a sufficient origin for the story ; 
or some deception may have been practised by 
the priests. 

The 21st of December is St. Thomas's day in 
the Western Calendar. 



MATTHEW. 



Matthew places himself the eighth on his list, 
and styles himself " the Publican. " This avowal 
of his profession is at once a proof of his humility 
and his good sense. He had the meekness to set 
himself down exactly what he was, notwithstand- 
ing the contempt which the confession might 
bring upon him ; and he had the wisdom to per- 
ceive that there was no rank or occupation in 
life, however low, which could change the nature 
of true worth, or really disgrace an honest and 
virtuous man. 

To the Jews, above all other people, publican 
was an odious name. There is a use of this word 
among us, a low and improper use, which has 
nothing to do with its true signification and its 
Scripture sense ; for a publican does not mean, in 
the Gospels, an innkeeper, but a taxgatherer, or 
a receiver of the tribute imposed by government. 
The Romans employed these receivers of tribute, 
or publicans, in all their provinces, and among 



MATTHEW. 147 

the rest, in Judea. Now, to pay tribute was not 
only a constant acknowledgment and badge of 
subjection and servitude, but to the Jews it was 
something more galling still, because it wounded 
their religious as well as their political pride. It 
was a thought of pure, unmitigated bitterness, 
that the people of God should thus pass periodi- 
cally under the hated yoke of idolaters, and, as 
they would call them in their haughty exclusive- 
ness, barbarians. The office itself being thus 
detestable, it may be conceived how those persons 
must have been looked upon who held and exer- 
cised it. 

There were two orders, however, among the 
publicans; the receivers general, who had depu- 
ties under them, and these deputies themselves. 
The former were usually selected from the best 
classes of society; but the latter were reckoned 
ignoble and contemptible, even by the Gentiles, 
and were, as a body, vulgar, rapacious, and 
unmerciful. Some one asked Theocritus, which 
was the most cruel of all beasts? and he answer- 
ed, "Among the beasts of the wilderness, the bear 
and the lion; among the beasts of the city, the 
publican and the parasite." Of the higher order 
of publicans at Jerusalem, one is probably men- 
tioned in the Gospel of Luke, by the name of 



148 MATTHEW. 

Zacchseus, who is there said to be "the chief 
among the publicans," and a rich man. Of the 
lower order, were those who are so frequently 
classed in the Scriptures with sinners ; and of this 
order was Matthew. They were all, high and 
low, for the reasons just given, regarded with ab- 
horrence by the Jews, and treated as a profane 
and outcast set of people. " Let him be unto thee 
as a heathen man and a ^publican," is a phrase 
which expresses strongly the universal ban which 
was suspended over them. We are told that 
though a publican might be a Jew, he was hardly 
recognised as such by his countrymen; that he 
was not allowed to enter the temple; nor give 
testimony in courts of justice; that the gifts, even, 
which his devotion might prompt him to offer, 
were rejected from the altar of Jehovah, as un- 
clean and abominable. 

Bearing these things in mind, we can now es- 
timate the self-denial of the apostle, who, with a 
firm pen, could write himself down, " Matthew, 
the Publican." 

In the second chapter of Mark, he is said to 
be the son of Alpheus ; but whether this Alpheus 
is the same with the father of James the Less, or 
another individual, is uncertain. His place of 
residence was in Capernaum, or somewhere near 



MATTHEW. 149 

it, on the sea of Tiberias. Though he constant- 
ly calls himself Matthew, he is called Levi by the 
other evangelists; and it is for this reason that 
Levi and Matthew have been supposed by some 
celebrated scholars to be two different persons. 
But the circumstances of Matthew's call to be a 
disciple, as related in his own Gospel, are so pre- 
cisely similar to those which attend the call of 
Levi, as related in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, 
that the predominant opinion has always been, 
that Matthew and Levi were only two names for 
one and the same person. 

Though a publican, of an inferior rank, be- 
longing to a class of men who were considered 
vile, and who generally deserved their reputation, 
Matthew was an upright and religious man ; and 
there was one of his countrymen, if there were no 
more, who could separate the man from the pro- 
fession, and fearlessly engage him for his com- 
panion and friend. It was he who saw him sitting 
in his place of business, or at the receipt of cus- 
tom, as it is called, and said unto him, " Follow 
me." * These were words, which, from those lips, 

* It appears from the relation of Mark, in the second chapter of 
his Gospel, that Matthew's official station was at the seaside, where 
he was sitting when Jesus called him. Commentators say that the 
particular duty of Matthew as a publican, was to gather the customs 



150 MATTHEW. 

could not be uttered in vain; and the humble 
publican, who probably had before heard the dis- 
courses of Jesus, and heard them with admiration, 
and seen also some of the wonders which he had 
done, immediately arose and followed him. 

Our Saviour, after having called Matthew, 
went to his house; and there his new disciple 
prepared a supper for him ; and many publicans 
and sinners, the former associates of Matthew, 
came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. 
When some Pharisees, who were present, saw 
this, they said to the disciples, "Why eateth your 
Master with publicans and sinners'? But when 
Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They who 
are whole need not a physician, but they who are 
sick. But go ye, and learn what that meaneth, 
I will have mercy, and not sacrifice ; for I am 
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
pentance." 

In both of these incidents, the spirit of Chris- 
tianity and the character of its founder are con- 
spicuous. The call of a publican to be a follower 
of Christ and a herald of his religion, was a sign 
of the sublime superiority of the new faith, in its 

of commodities which came by the sea of Galilee, and the tribute 
which passengers were to pay who went by water. According to 
this statement, he was a toll-gatherer. 



MATTHEW. 151 

impartiality and mercy, over the bigotries of the 
old ; and evinces the discernment and the inde- 
pendence of Jesus, in selecting a worthy disciple 
from an order of men, among whom common 
opinion had pronounced that there was no worth 
to be found. And in sitting down to eat, that 
greatest token of familiarity, in the house of this 
publican, and with a mixed company of reputed 
sinners, Jesus again manifests the universal be- 
nevolence of his temper and his doctrine. To the 
hypocritical Pharisees, it was indeed a strange 
and scandalous thing, that one who set up as the 
Messiah of Israel, and the purifier of its ordinan- 
ces, should take a publican to be a pupil, and 
break bread with other publicans and notorious 
sinners ; but how well are their narrow prejudices 
and their supercilious and uncharitable self-righ- 
teousness rebuked by the steadfast reply of the 
Saviour ! "The religion which I would incul- 
cate," as the reply may be paraphrased, " embraces 
in its pure mercy the whole family of man ; it 
draws no impassable line between the privileged 
and the profane ; it leaves none to despair of 
heaven's favor and acceptance ; — if ye are perfect, 
if ye are whole, my errand is not to you ; go ; go 
to your temple, and perform your rites ; but when 
there, study the meaning of that scripture, I will 



152 MATTHEW. 

have mercy and not sacrifice. As for these, they 
are sick ; they need a physician, and I must heal 
them; ye yourselves say that they are sinners, 
and why shall I not call them to repentance, and 
save them 1 " 

With what has been now told from the Gospels 
concerning Matthew, we must rest contented; 
but even from these slight memorials we shall gain 
a highly favorable impression of his character. 
In his depressed condition as a publican, he seems 
to have learned the valuable lesson of humility; 
and thus to have become " almost a Christian, " 
before he was a follower of Christ. Among his 
vile companions, whom public obloquy had made 
yet more vile than their habits and their occupa- 
tion would have made them, he was upright, 
honest, merciful, uncontaminated. His integrity 
appears doubly bright by contrast, amidst the 
dark examples and fearful temptations which were 
all around it like clouds ; and his virtue, reared 
among quicksands and waves, proved, simply by 
its being and standing there, how very deeply and 
strongly its foundations were laid. It is further 
to be remarked, that though he was the writer of 
one of the Gospel histories, he says nothing more 
of himself than that he was called to follow Je- 
sus, while he was sitting in his office, and that he 



MATTHEW. 153 

afterwards entertained his Master at his house; 
and this latter circumstance he only mentions in 
order that he may introduce the answer of Jesus 
to the Pharisees. We could have no better evi- 
dence than this, of his disinterestedness and 
modesty. 

His Gospel is every where distinguished by 
plain good sense and manly simplicity. It was 
written, as some of the ancients say, fifteen years 
after the ascension of our Saviour, or as others 
affirm, yet seven years earlier, or, according to 
yet others, at a considerably later period than the 
latest of these two dates, that is, about the year 
60, or between 60 and 70 of our era, while Peter 
and Paul were preaching at Rome. Although 
some critics have advanced the opinion that 
Luke's Gospel was the first which was written, 
the general voice of antiquity is against them, 
and a majority also, I believe, of the moderns. 
So that the Gospel of Matthew really stands, in 
all probability, where a place is given to it in our 
Bibles, the first in order of the four evangelical 
histories. 

Another circumstance respecting this Gospel, 
which the earliest ecclesiastical authors record, 
and which, though it has been controverted, is 
most probably a fact, is, that we do not possess 



154 MATTHEW. 

it in the language in which it was originally 
composed. It was written by Matthew, according 
to the best testimony, at Jerusalem, on purpose for 
the Jewish converts, and in that modern dialect 
or species of Hebrew which was the common 
language, at that time, of Palestine. The Gospel 
in that language has been lost, it is supposed, 
irretrievably. That which we have, is a transla- 
tion of it into Greek, made very soon after the 
original was composed. There is no reason to 
challenge its exact faithfulness to the original ; 
and some have even supposed that Matthew him- 
self was the author of this Greek rendering of his 
own Hebrew Gospel. The predominant opinion 
is, however, that the name of the translator, and 
the Gospel which he translated, are alike unknown 
and undiscoverable. Though we may be allowed 
to regret that we cannot look on the very words 
which this excellent apostle used in narrating, 
for our exceeding benefit, the life and actions of 
his Master, yet our faith ought not to be in the 
least disturbed bv the loss, while there remains 
to us a translation of his history, so manifestly 
ancient, complete, and true. 

I am well aware that there are great names to 
be brought against the commonly received opin- 
ions of the priority of Matthew's Gospel, and its 



MATTHEW. 155 

having been originally written in Hebrew. There 
are also great names in favor of those opinions. 
And I confess I am somewhat surprised that the 
name of Lardner stands in the former class. 
Irenaeus, on whose authority, as being the most 
ancient, he justly relies, expressly says that the 
Gospel was written in Hebrew ; and though he 
seems to assign the latest of the three dates to 
its composition, he evidently means to leave the 
impression that it was written before the other 
Gospels. I will now give the passage from Ire- 
naeus — who wrote about the year 178 — precisely 
as it is given in Lardner's own immortal work. 

" Matthew then among the Jews wrote a gospel 
in their own language, while Peter and Paul were 
preaching the gospel at Rome, and founding [or 
establishing] the church there. And after their 
exit [that is, death, or departure] Mark also, the 
disciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to us 
in writing, the things that had been preached by 
Peter. And Luke, the companion of Paul, put 
down in a book the gospel preached by him. 
Afterwards John, the disciple of the Lord, v/ho 
leaned upon his breast, likewise published a gos- 
pel, whilst he dwelt at Ephesus, in Asia." 

And the next authority cited by Lardner, is 
that of Origen, who says, about the year 230, 



156 MATTHEW. 

" that according to the tradition received by him, 
the first gospel was written by Matthew, once a 
publican, afterwards a disciple of Jesus Christ ; 
who delivered it to the Jewish believers, com- 
posed in the Hebrew language." To the same 
purpose is the testimony of Eusebius, the third 
cited authority. 

Although Dr. Lardner's arguments against the 
Hebrew original of Matthew's Gospel, are learned 
and ingenious, they cannot convince me in oppo- 
sition to such authorities. And let it be observed, 
that the date assigned by Irenaeus to its compo- 
sition, is not a fixed and certain date, because 
the period of the preaching of Peter and Paul at 
Rome is not a fixed or certain year. But the 
priority of the Gospel is a fixed and certain fact, 
according to that father, and so is the language 
in which it was written. 

Matthew is said to have carried the religion 
of Jesus into Parthia and Ethiopia, and to have 
suffered martyrdom at Naddaber, in the latter 
country, but by what death is uncertain. We 
are told also that his remains were brought to 
Bithynia, and from thence to Salernum, in the 
kingdom of Naples, where they were discovered 
in the year 1080, and where a church was built 
for them by duke Robert, in the pontificate of 



MATTHEW. 157 

Gregory VII. We can readily believe that relics 
were thus found and honored, which were de- 
clared, and by many supposed, to be the body of 
the apostle ; but that they really were so, we are 
at perfect liberty to question and to deny. 

Matthew's festival is on the 21st of Septem- 
ber. 



JAMES THE LESS 



Next to his own name, Matthew writes that 
of "James, the son of Alpheus;" who is also 
called, in the Gospel of Mark, " James the Less," 
or the younger, to distinguish him from the other 
apostle of the same name, James the brother of 
John, who was older than he ; or it may be that 
he was of small stature, and therefore named 
" the less." 

His mother's name was Mary. She was one 
of the Marys who were present at the crucifixion 
of our Saviour ; and appears to have been the 
sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. In the 
Gospel of Mark she is called " Mary, the mother 
of James the Less and of Joses." In a parallel 
passage of John's Gospel, she is mentioned as 
follows. " There stood by the cross of Jesus, 
his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the 
wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." From 
these passages the inference is justly drawn, that 
James the Less was the first cousin of Jesus. 



JAMES THE LESS. 159 

He is expressly called the son of Alpheus and of 
Mary ; and as Mary who was the wife of Alpheus, 
which is only the Greek pronunciation of the 
Hebrew name Cleophas, is also termed in the 
same passage the sister of our Lord's mother, he 
is consequently our Lord's cousin. 

He is the same person who is mentioned by 
Paul, when he says, in his Epistle to the Gala- 
tians, " But other of the apostles saw I none, 
save James the Lord's brother." To account for 
this appellation, it must be observed that the Jews 
were accustomed to include all near relations 
under the general name of brethren. And we 
may also remark, that though it appears strange 
that Mary should be the sister of Mary, it was 
not uncommon among the Jews, that two sisters 
of the same family should bear the same name. 
James is likewise enumerated among the Lord's 
brethren by the Jews, when they asked in aston- 
ishment, " Is not this the carpenter's son ? is 
not his mother called Mary ? and his brethren, 
James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?" Of 
these four sons, three were apostles of Jesus ; 
and the other one, Joses, or Joseph, was probably 
a disciple ; as was Cleophas too, or Alpheus, the 
father of this Christian family. 



lDU JAMES THE LESS. 

The exact relationship to Jesus of James the 
Less, and others, who are called his brethren, 
was a matter of controversy in very early times. 
Respectable names appear on each side ; and 
Cave says that a majority of the ancients were of 
opinion that these " brethren" were actually the 
sons of Joseph by a former wife. It has appeared 
to me that the other opinion is the most likely 
to be the true one, and I have therefore called 
James the cousin of Jesus. One of the strongest 
arguments for this view of the relationship, is, 
that the father of James is called Alpheus, and 
not Joseph, and that Mary the wife of Cleophas 
is mentioned in the Gospel of John as a person 
entirely distinct from the mother of Jesus, and 
further appears to be the same who is called by 
Mark the mother of James the Less and of Joses. 
Now Alpheus and Cleophas being the same 
name, the chain of testimony is complete; so 
complete, that I wonder any question should ever 
have been raised on the subject. It may be 
added, that Lardner inclines to the opinion that 
James was cousin to our Lord. 

No particulars are related of James in the 
Gospels ; but honorable mention is made of him 
in the book of Acts, and the Epistles of Paul. 
Perhaps his youth and his modesty, together with 



JAMES THE LESS. 161 

his near relationship to Jesus, operated upon him 
to be silent and inactive during the life of the 
Saviour, though afterwards his talents and worth 
made him conspicuous. He appears to have re- 
sided constantly at Jerusalem, and to have been 
president or bishop of the church there. All an- 
tiquity affirms this, and Scripture gives it good 
countenance. Thus we are told in the twelfth 
chapter of Acts, that when Peter had been mi- 
raculously delivered from the prison into which 
he had been thrown by Herod, who had just slain 
the other James, he went to the house of a be- 
lieving family, and said to those who were there ; 
" Go, show these things unto James, and the 
brethren." James is evidently spoken of here, 
as having a precedence among the brethren. 
Again, in the fifteenth chapter of the same book, 
he appears to have been the presiding member of 
the Council of Jerusalem, of which I have before 
had occasion to speak, and which decided that 
the Gentiles were to be received, on their con- 
version, into the full privileges of the Christian 
church, without being obliged to undergo the 
ceremony of circumcision. It has been observed 
that though Peter spoke first on this occasion, 
James spoke last, and gave his opinion or " sen- 
tence" with regard to the most proper course to 

L 



162 JAMES THE LESS. 

be pursued, and that the letter or result of the 
council was chiefly modelled upon his words. 
From these circumstances it has been concluded 
that he was the moderator or president of this 
first Christian council, and that this rank was 
probably conceded to him on account of his being 
the presiding apostle or bishop of Jerusalem, in 
which place the council was convened. Peter, 
as it may be remembered, agreed with James 
entirely in this case ; but, though in some sense 
chief of the apostles, it is evident that when the 
church came to be enlarged and settled, he did 
not possess any general supreme authority, but, 
as in the present council, was regarded, and re- 
garded himself, as in subordination to the local 
authorities. The speech of James is replete with 
good sense, dignity, and a spirit of charity and 
forbearance, and sufficiently indicates the wisdom 
of his brethren in making him bishop or overseer 
of the Christian church of Jerusalem. 

In the twenty-first chapter of Acts there is also 
a particular mention of James, which corroborates 
the preceding proofs of his consequence in the 
church. In an account there given of the journey 
of Paul and his company to Jerusalem, with the 
collections for the saints in Judea, the writer says, 
f i And when we were come to Jerusalem, the 



JAMES THE LESS. 163 

brethren received us gladly. And the day fol- 
lowing, Paul went in with us unto James; and 
all the elders were present." James could hardly 
have been singled out by name in this passage, 
for any other reason than because he was the 
chief person at this convocation of the elders. 

To all this evidence of the standing of James 
and the high consideration in which he was held, 
the testimony of Paul himself is to be added. 
One passage has already been adduced from the 
first chapter of his epistle to the Galatians. In 
the second chapter, Paul says, " And when James, 
Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, per- 
ceived the grace that was given unto me, they 
gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fel- 
lowship, that we should go unto the heathen, and 
they unto the circumcision." Here it is to be 
noted, that James is not only called one of the 
pillars of the church, but is placed at the head of 
the three ; even before Cephas, or Peter. At the 
same time we ought to observe, that ecclesiastical 
rank was by no means, in those primitive times, 
that thing of name and pomp and prerogative that 
it has since been made in most of the churches 
of Christendom ; for if James had been the bishop 
of Jerusalem in the same sense in which the 
title is now applied, Paul would never have said 



164 JAMES THE LESS. 

of him and the others, that they " seemed to be 
pillars ; " an expression which plainly signifies, 
that they appeared, as far as he could judge, to be 
the first men in the church. In truth, a bishop in 
those days was only a moderator among brethren 
and equals ; appointed to the office by them, and 
appointed to it for his superior gifts and attain- 
ments. 

Once more, and in this same chapter, is James 
mentioned. Paul, in relating the vacillating con- 
duct of Peter, with regard to eating with the 
Gentiles, says, in the words which I have already 
quoted in Peter's life, " Before that certain came 
from James, he did eat with the Gentiles; but 
when they were come, he withdrew and separated 
himself." Here again is James spoken of as a 
person of consideration and authority. 

Thus far do the Scriptures inform us of the life 
and character of James the Less. Ancient eccle- 
siastical writers have much to say of his virtues 
and wisdom, and of the respect which they pro- 
cured for him, both among the faithful and the 
unbelieving. The Jews, we are told, were un- 
bounded in their admiration of him ; insomuch, 
that, as Jerome affirms, they used to strive to 
touch the hem of his garment. On account of 
his remarkable integrity, he obtained another 



JAMES THE LESS. 165 

surname beside that which is given to him in the 
Scriptures, and was called James the Just. Some 
go so far as to say, that he was allowed to enter 
into the Holy of Holies of the Jewish temple ; but 
this must be a fiction. It is a fiction, however, 
which, together with other similar ones, shows 
that there must have been a foundation for them in 
the high character and reputation of this apostle. 
The circumstances of his death are differently 
stated. Josephus, the Jewish historian, is sup- 
posed to relate it in the following passage from 
the twentieth book of his Antiquites, which I give 
in the translation of L'Estrange. " The Ananus 
we are now speaking of, [who had recently been 
raised to the high priesthood by Agrippa,] was 
naturally fierce and hardy ; by sect, a Sadducee, 
the most censorious and uncharitable sort of peo- 
ple upon the face of the earth. This being his 
way and opinion, he took his opportunity, in the 
interval betwixt the death of Festus and the arri- 
val of his successor Albinus, who was as yet but 
upon the way, to call a council together, with the 
assistance of the judges, and to cite James, the 
brother of Jesus, which was called Christ, with 
some others, to appear before them, and answer 
to a charge of blasphemy, and breach of the law ; 
whereupon they were condemned, and delivered 



166 JAMES THE LESS. 

up to be stoned." The account proceeds to say 
that all the sober and conscientious part of the 
city were so much offended with this high handed 
way of acting, that they sent a representation of 
it, with a remonstrance, both to king Agrippa, 
and to Albinus ; the consequence of which was, 
that Ananus was deposed by Agrippa from the 
pontificate. This passage would be decisive, 
were it not that several learned men question the 
genuineness of the words, " the brother of Jesus 
which was called Christ." Lardner thinks that 
they are an interpolation, and inclines to the 
account given by Eusebius, in the second book 
of his Ecclesiastical History; who says, "When 
Paul had appealed to Caesar, and had been sent 
to Rome by Festus, the Jews, who had aimed at 
his death, being disappointed in that design, 
turned their rage against James the Lord's 
brother, who had been appointed by the apostles, 
bishop of Jerusalem," and then he goes on to 
state, that James was killed in a popular tumult. 
If this narrative is the true one, it makes the 
death of the apostle a year or two earlier than it 
is dated by Josephus ; but at any rate we may 
safely fix it somewhere about the year 60, and 
eight or ten years before the destruction of Jeru- 
salem. He was buried, according to Gregory, 



JAMES THE LESS. 167 

bishop of Tours, on Mount Olivet, in a tomb 
which he had built for himself. 

So great was the reputation of James for sanc- 
tity, that his death was supposed by the Jews 
themselves to have hastened the destruction of 
their city. Some of the Fathers tell us that 
this was asserted by Josephus ; but the passage 
is not now to be found in his works. Both 
the accounts of James's death agree that he was 
stoned. It is added in the relation of Hegesippus, 
as preserved by Eusebius, that he was finally 
despatched by the blow of a fuller's club. 

The following excellent summary of the main 
facts in the life of James, is from the close of 
Lardner's account of that apostle. 

" James, sometimes called the Less, the son of 
Alpheus, and called the Lord's brother, either as 
being the son of Joseph by a former wife, or a 
relation of his mother Mary, was one of Christ's 
apostles. We have no account of the time when 
he was called to the apostleship. Nor is there 
any thing said of him particularly in the history 
of our Saviour, which is in the Gospels. But 
from the Acts, and St. Paul's Epistles, we can 
perceive, that after our Lord's ascension he was 
of note among the apostles. Soon after St. Ste- 
phen's death in the year 36, or thereabout, he 



168 JAMES THE LESS. 

seems to have been appointed president, or super- 
intendant in the church of Jerusalem, where, 
and in Judea, he resided the remaining part 
of his life. Accordingly, he presided in the 
Council of Jerusalem, held there in the year 49 
or 50. He was in great repute among the Jewish 
people, both believers and unbelievers, and was 
surnamed the Just. Notwithstanding which, he 
suffered martyrdom in a tumult at the temple ; 
and probably in the former part of the year 62." 

There is one epistle, among the canonical 
books of the New Testament, which is very gen- 
erally ascribed to James the Less, the brother or 
cousin of Jesus, though some doubt has been 
entertained of its authenticity and apostolic au- 
thority, and no distinct reference to it is to be 
found in the writings of the earliest fathers. In 
the time of Eusebius, however, it was universally 
received and read in the churches. It is a noble 
exhortation, full of good sense and spirit, digni- 
fied, independent, and explicit. Its value is of 
the highest description, both as it is an unreserved 
declaration of the intrinsic merit and importance 
of good works or virtue, and as it contains a most 
fearless, indignant, and forcible denunciation of 
the reigning vices and follies of the generation 
to whom the apostle wrote. A common opinion 



JAMES THE LESS. 169 

among the ancient writers of the church, is, that 
the first part of it was composed expressly to ex- 
plain those passages of Paul's epistles which seem 
to slight good works, and make every thing of 
faith, or mere belief; and that the severe rebukes 
and warnings which are contained in the latter 
portion of it, were the chief occasion of the wri- 
ter's being stoned to death by the Jewish popu- 
lace ; as that event is supposed to have taken 
place a short time after the publication of the 
epistle. 

That the encomium of James on good works 
was intended to explain some of those things 
in Paul's writings which were hard to be un- 
derstood, is not improbable ; but that it is in 
direct opposition to them, as some have thought, 
is not only improbable but impossible. For it 
is impossible to read Paul's description of chari- 
ty, in which he declares that it is greater 
than both faith and hope, and still to believe 
that he would so directly contradict himself 
as to reverse this order, and exalt faith above 
charity; or that he intended by what he calls 
works, and the works of the law, what we mean 
by good works and Christian morality or virtue. 
The world have been too long, and much too 
vehemently disputing about the relative super i- 



170 JAMES THE LESS. 

ority of faith and works, and arraying James 
against Paul, and Paul against himself. It was, 
perhaps, a strong bias toward one side of this 
controversy, or rather a bigoted and dogmatical 
attachment to it, quite as much as any doubts of 
the genuineness and antiquity of James's epistle, 
which induced Luther to call it, in contempt, 
"an epistle of straw."* Despite, however, of 
this coarse epithet of the Reformer, it has main- 
tained its authority in the Christian church ; 
an authority, which, if intrinsic excellence and 
internal evidence have any weight, it amply de- 
serves. 

His day in the Calendar is May 1st, which is 
also dedicated to the apostle Philip. 

* " Epistola straminea," a strawy epistle, is the phrase applied by 
Luther to the epistle of James. The boldness, and perhaps even the 
rudeness of the great Reformer, qualified him to carry through his 
enterprise as he did, under circumstances, and in an age, -which 
demanded not only decision, but a rough, uncompromising, unfeeling 
decision. Granting this to be the case, still he is not to be regarded 
as a pattern of Christian meekness, forbearance, or charity ; quali- 
ties which neither he, nor his contemporary Calvin, in any great 
degree possessed. Luther was more wild in his doctrine of faith 
than even Calvin ; and he vented his spleen against good works on 
the excellent epistle of James, in an expression of contempt, which 
would not be tolerated at the present day. 



JUDE. 



The apostle who stands the tenth on Matthew's 
list, and is there called " Lebbeus whose surname 
was Thaddeus," is called in Mark's catalogue, 
" Thaddeus," and in Luke's, " Judas the brother 
of James." We cannot fail to remark, how care- 
fully he is always distinguished from the other 
Judas. Matthew and Mark avoid naming him 
by the name which he held in common with the 
traitor ; and Luke takes care to distinguish him, 
by adding to that ill omened appellation, that he 
was the brother of James. 

Jude, Judas, and Judah are one and the same 
name. Jude is merely an English abbreviation 
of Judas, and Judas is only a Greek pronuncia- 
tion of the old Hebrew name of Judah. It means 
the praise of the Lord. Thaddeus is derived 
from the same root, and has a similar significa- 
tion. Lebbeus appears to mean a man of heart, 
or courage, being derived from a word signifying 
the heart. These two last names were probably 
adopted to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot. 



172 JUDE. 

All that is said of him in the sacred histories, 
is, that at the last supper he asked Jesus why he 
was to manifest himself to his disciples, and not 
to the world. He was moved to put this question 
by the views, which, in common with the other 
disciples, he entertained of the coming of the 
Messiah; who, as he thought, was to declare 
himself at last, with great pomp and external 
power. It was a mystery to him, therefore, how 
this victorious display was to be made to the small 
number of his disciples alone, and not to the 
whole admiring world. The answer of Jesus 
was not then, in all probability, understood. 
The meaning and substance of it was, that he 
and his Father would manifest themselves to 
those alone, and dwell in those alone, who loved 
him with that holy love, the fruits of which were 
righteousness and peace. This strong and beau- 
tiful declaration of the spirituality of the Mes- 
siah's kingdom, is to be added to those which 
I have already noticed. The circumstance is 
related by John in the fourteenth chapter of his 
Gospel, who designates the apostle as " Judas, 
not Iscariot." No light is any where thrown 
upon his character ; and all that we know of his 
condition, is, that he was the brother of James 
the Less, and consequently a cousin of our 
Lord. 



JUDE. 173 

Other accounts of this apostle are so various 
and contradictory, that it would be wasting time 
to quote any of them. It is not known with cer- 
tainty where he preached, or where he died, or 
whether he died a natural death, or suffered 
martyrdom. Most of the Latin writers say, that 
he travelled into Persia, where his labors were 
very successful ; but where, having irritated the 
Magi by reproving them for their superstitious 
practices, he was put to a violent death. Some 
of the Greeks affirm that he died quietly at Be- 
rytus ; and the Armenians contend that in their 
country he was martyred.* 

There is a passage from the ancient writer 
Hegesippus, as quoted by Eusebius, from which 
it appears, that Jude was perhaps an husbandman 
before he was an apostle, and that he had de- 
scendants. The passage is thus given by Lard- 
ner. 

* It is in vain to endeavour to learn any thing of this apostle from 
the writings of the Fathers, who, as is very evident from their con- 
tradictory stories, knew nothing about him. They generally prefer- 
red, however, to record the most groundless legend, rather than to 
confess their ignorance. " The men themselves," says Dr. Jortin, 
speaking of the Fathers, in his Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, 
" usually deserve much respect, and their writings are highly useful 
on several accounts ; but it is better to defer too little than too much 
to their decisions, and to the authority of antiquity, that handmaid to 
Scripture, as she is called. She is like Briar eus, and has a hundred 
hands, and these hands often clash, and beat one another." 



174 



JUDE. 



" When Domitian made inquiries after the 
posterity of David, some grandsons of Jude, 
called the Lord's brother, were brought before 
him. Being asked concerning their possessions 
and substance, they assured him, that they had 
only so many acres of land, out of the improve- 
ment of which they both paid him tribute, and 
maintained themselves with their own hard labor. 
The truth of what they said was confirmed by 
the callousness of their hands. Being asked 
concerning Christ, and his kingdom, of what 
kind it was, and when it would appear, they 
answered, that it was not worldly and earthly, 
but heavenly and angelical; that it would be 
manifested at the end of the world, when, coming 
in great glory, he would judge the living and the 
dead, and render to every man according to his 
works. The men being mean, and their princi- 
ples harmless, they were dismissed." 

If the above passage be taken in connexion 
with another from the old but doubtful book of 
the Apostolical Constitutions, in which the apos- 
tles are made to say, " Some of us are fishermen, 
others tent-makers, others husbandmen," the 
probability that Jude was a tiller of the soil, is 
strengthened. At any rate, if the account of 
Hegesippus is to be relied on, he was married, 
and had descendants. 



JUDE. 175 

One epistle has been so generally ascribed to 
Judas, or Jude, that it has been admitted into 
the canon of the New Testament. There is 
hardly another book, however, in that canon, 
which has been so much disputed. And yet 
there is no solid reason for rejecting the early 
tradition, which gives it to this apostle. It was 
known in the first century, and there is no inter- 
nal evidence against its apostolic origin. It was 
expressly quoted by Clement of Alexandria, who 
flourished about the year 194, and after him, by 
succeeding fathers. Lardner supposes it to have 
been written at some time between the years 64 
and 66, that is, a few years before the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem. 

October 28th is sacred, in the Western Calen- 
dar, to the memory of the apostle Jude. 



SIMON ZELOTES 



The next apostle in order is another Simon, 
who, in the catalogues of Matthew and Mark, is 
surnamed " the Canaanite," and in that of Luke's 
Gospel, and the book of Acts, " Zelotes." Some 
have thought that the surname, Canaanite, de- 
noted the birthplace of the apostle ; but others, 
with more probability, suppose that Canaanite is 
merely a Hebrew word, having the same signifi- 
cation with Zelotes, the Greek word used by 
Luke, and which means a zealot, or one who is 
extremely zealous. Simon may have received 
this appellation on account of his having once 
belonged to a sect or faction among the Jews, 
who were called Zealots, or only on account 
of the warmth of his disposition, or the ardor 
with which he espoused and maintained the 
cause of Jesus.* 

* " This word," 6ays Cave, " has no relation to his country, or the 
place from whence he borrowed his original, as plainly descending 
from a Hebrew word which signifies zeal, and denotes a hot and 



SIMON ZELOTES. 177 

I 

It is'probable, though not certain, that he is 
the same Simon who is mentioned as one of the 
brethren or cousins of our Lord. Of the history 
of his life nothing whatever is known ; although 
the later writers and martyrologists of the church, 
pretend, as usual, to be intimately acquainted with 
it, and give us our choice of a sufficient number 
of contradictory legends. By some of them he 
is said to have labored in Egypt and Persia, and 
to have been martyred in the last named coun- 
try. By others, he is made to penetrate as far 
as Britain, and there to be crucified. " Nor 
could the coldness of the climate benumb his 
zeal," exclaims the honest Cave, "or hinder 
him from shipping himself and the Christian 
doctrine over to the western islands, yea, even 
to Britain itself. Here he preached, and wrought 
many miracles, and after infinite troubles and 
difficulties which he underwent, suffered martyr- 
dom for the faith of Christ, as is not only affirmed 
by Nicephorus and Dorotheus, but expressly 
owned in the Greek Menologies, where we are 
told that he went at last into Britain, and having 
enlightened the minds of many with the doctrine 

sprightly temper. Therefore what some of the Evangelists call 
Canaanite, others, rendering the Hebrew by the Greek word, style 
Simon Zelotes, or the Zealot." 

M 



178 SIMON ZELOTES. 

of the gospel, was crucified by the infidels, and 
buried there." 

The two apostles, Simon and Jude, are com- 
memorated on the same day, October 28th. 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 



The last, always the last, on the lists of the 
apostles, is Judas Iscariot. He is always branded, 
too, by those fearful and thrilling words, " who 
also betrayed him." And it is sad, that we must 
close the roll which we have been examining of 
this glorious apostolic company, with the name of 
a traitor. 

His surname of Iscariot, probably designates 
his birthplace ; as it signifies "the man of Carioth 
or Kerioth," which was a town in the tribe of 
Judah. But this is hardly more than conjecture. 
There is a solemn obscurity hanging over the 
life of this man, shrouding every thing in silent 
and immovable shadow ; except one deed of gi- 
gantic enormity, which raises its high and desert 
head, and frowns in gloomy solitude over the 
surrounding Waste of darkness and clouds. He 
is called the son of Simon. Who is Simon ? 
Search the Scriptures for him. The search will 
be vain. He is only known, as has been forcibly 



180 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

said, only known by the misfortune of having 
such a son. 

The early dispositions of Judas must have been 
bad, or he would not have proved himself the 
wretch that he did, so soon after joining himself 
to such a Master ; and a circumstance recorded 
in the Gospel of John, plainly intimates to us 
what the chief vice of his character was. We 
are informed, that on a visit which Jesus made 
to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom a little 
while before he had raised from the dead, a sup- 
per was made for him there ; that Lazarus, with 
not one trace of death on his countenance, though 
but just now brought up from the grave, sat at 
table ; and that Martha, with her usual assiduity, 
served. " Then took Mary a pound of ointment 
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet 
of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; 
and the house was filled with the odor of the 
ointment." This offering, though it may not 
have been useful, was certainly grateful and 
generous, and was beside in conformity with the 
custom of the country, and deserved, therefore, 
an approving comment from the friends and fol- 
lowers of Jesus. But what was the sequel ? 
" Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, 
Simon's son, who was to betray him, Why was 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 181 

not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, 
and given to the poor ? " From an honest and 
really charitable man this remark would have 
been but a cold one, at such a season ; but 
Judas was neither ; and he said this, proceeds 
the historian, " not that he cared for the poor, 
but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and 
bare off what was put therein." * Thus it appears, 
that the root of all this traitor's wickedness was 
avarice, and that it had already borne the deadly 
fruits of fraud and theft. He had the bag. He 
had been the treasurer of the fraternity ; and so 
strong was his odious passion, and so weak was 
his principle, that he was unable to resist the 
temptation which the trust afforded him, of pur- 
loining whatever he could from the common 
stock, which of necessity must have been a scanty 
one ; and on this occasion he was grievously dis- 
appointed, that he could not have the handling of 
the large sum of three hundred Roman denarii, 
under the pretence of distributing it to the poor. 
It is to be presumed that his peculiarities were 
not known to the apostles at that time, but that 
they came to light afterwards. If they had then 



* In our English bible it is, " and bare what was put therein ; " a 
translation which does not seem to give the true meaning of the 
passage, though the Greek verb admits of both senses. 



182 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 



been aware of his conduct, they would doubtless 
have spurned and avoided him. 

Their Master, however, was acquainted both 
with what he did, and with what he was ; for it 
was on an occasion previous to this, that in re- 
minding the disciples of his own strong claimi 
on their attachment, he said, " Have not I chosen 
you twelve? and one of you is a devil \" Here, 
too, as we are informed, "he spake of Judas 
Iscariot, the son of Simon." And let it be ob- 
served, that neither the apostleship of Judas, nor 
his being the treasurer of the apostles, were 
causes of his avarice and treachery, and that 
therefore the knowledge which his Master pos- 
sessed of his unsoundness is no excuse for it. 
If he had been a man of common goodness only, 
the trust v/hich was reposed in him would have 
prompted him to a worthy exercise of it. Con- 
sequently it did not occasion, it only was the 
means of drawing forth and exposing his base- 
ness. Why our Saviour, acquainted as he was 
with the character of Judas, permitted him to 
hold the office of purse bearer ; or why he ever 
called him to be an apostle, are questions of a 
different import. Before we attempt to assign 
any reason or motive for the course of Jesus in 
this respect, let us attend for a moment to its 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 183 

consequences, and its bearing on the credibility 
of his gospel. 

I have already stated, in my introductory re- 
marks, that among the reasons which existed in 
the mind of our Lord, for calling to himself a 
company of apostles, one probably was, that his 
conduct and instructions, being scrutinized by a 
number of individuals, and continually spread 
open to their observation, might be sufficiently 
attested and vindicated, at first to them, and 
afterwards to the world. This test was made 
more perfect by the introduction of one among 
his attendants, whose heart was corrupt, and who 
would probably turn to as bad account as possible 
the confidence reposed in him. Thus we see 
that the inquisition to which the author of our 
religion was exposed, was a complete one. The 
honest disciples would have published any thing 
which they might have seen inconsistent with 
rectitude ; and the traitor, the unprincipled dig* 
ciple, would have magnified any fault or miscon- 
duct in his Master, if he could have found any 
there, as an excuse for his treachery. We ought 
not to be too hasty in ascribing motives to our 
Saviour in so grave a concern as this ; but with 
the facts before us, we cannot but feel satisfied 
that his character rests on a firmer basis, from 



184 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

having been thus laid open to the search of a 
wicked spy, and that his religion derives advan- 
tage from the scrutiny. And it is to be repeated, 
that the apostolic call did not make Judas a thief 
and a traitor ; it found him one already ; and if 
ever any man had the opportunity of reformation 
offered him, it certainly was he, who daily heard 
the instructions of heaven, and beheld the exam- 
ple of perfection. We may conclude, therefore, 
that it was for the satisfaction of all future ages, 
for our conviction of the faultlessness of Jesus 
Christ, that Judas was made an apostle. 

Commentators and harmonists disagree upon 
the question, whether the supper at Bethany was 
the same as that mentioned by Matthew, as hav- 
ing been given in the house of Simon the leper. 
There are some circumstances common to both, 
and some peculiar to each. Macknight is confi- 
dent that they were two distinct occurrences. A 
few of his arguments I will here repeat, which 
may lead the reader to further investigations. 

" Although this supper (John xii. 2.) is sup- 
posed by many to have been the same with that 
mentioned in Matt. xxvi. 6., upon examination 
they will appear to have been different. This 
happened in the house of Lazarus; that, in the 
house of Simon the leper. At this, Mary, the 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 165 

sister of Lazarus, anointed our Lord's feet, and 
wiped them with her hair ; at that, a woman, not 
named, poured the ointment on his head. Here 
Judas only found fault with the action ; there he 
was seconded by some of the rest. It seems all 
the disciples but Judas had let his first anointing 
pass without censure. But when they saw so 
expensive a compliment repeated, and that within 
a few days the one of the other, they joined with 
him in blaming the woman, and might think 
themselves warranted to do so, as they knew that 
their Master was not delighted with luxuries of 
any kind." Again he says : " The anointing, 
after which Judas bargained with the priests, 
happened only two days before the Passover, and 
consequently was different from that mentioned 
by John, which was six days before that solem- 
nity." 

"Thus it evidently appears," he proceeds, 
" that our Lord was anointed with spikenard three 
different times during the course of his ministry; 
once in the house of Simon the Pharisee, once 
in the house of Lazarus, and once in the house 
of Simon the leper. That this honor should 
have been done him so often, needs not be 
thought strange; for in those countries it was 
common at entertainments to pour fragrant oils 



186 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 



on the heads of such guests as they designed to 
distinguish with marks of extraordinary respect. 
The custom is alluded to, Psal. xlv. 7. ' God hath 
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy 
fellows.' Where this piece of civility was showed, 
it was an expression of the highest complacency, 
and produced great gladness in the person who 
was the object of it." 

The answer of our Lord to the covetous remark 
of his disciple, is narrated as follows. " Then 
said Jesus, Let her alone; against the day Of 
my burying hath she kept this. For the poor 
always ye have with you; but me ye have not 
always." That is, " Suffer this woman to per- 
form her pious work, and molest her not. She 
is anointing me for my burial ; for I know that 
my hour is at hand, and that the grave is ready 
for me. Let her alone ; it is the last testimony 
of her gratitude ; it is the last mark of affection 
and reverence which I shall receive on earth ; 
why then should it be called too costly ? The 
claims of the poor are just and strong; I, surely, 
have never taught you to slight them ; but the 
poor remain with you, and you will have abun- 
dant opportunity to relieve them ; I am about to 
depart from you, and go to my Father." 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 187 

This rebuke was a mild and touching one; 
but it affected not the stubborn heart of Judas ; 
it even incited him, perhaps, to execute imme- 
diately his before conceived purpose of betraying 
his Master into the hands of his enemies; for 
very soon after it had been uttered, he went unto 
the chief priests, and bargained with them to 
deliver up Jesus into their power, for thirty pieces 
of silver ; a sum not more than about a third of 
what the ointment had cost ; and from that time 
he sought opportunity to betray him. 

The value of the ointment was three hundred 
pence ; the wages of treachery were thirty pieces 
of silver. The pence are supposed to be the Ro- 
man denarii, and a denarius is estimated at seven 
pence halfpenny, English money; at which rate 
the whole cost of the ointment would be over 
nine pounds sterling. The pieces of silver were 
probably the Jewish shekels, each of which was 
of a weight equivalent to about two shillings and 
three pence ; amounting in all to between three 
and four pounds. A different reckoning, how- 
ever, has been adopted by some, as appears from 
the following passage from Jeremy Taylor's Life 
of Christ, which I quote at length, as containing 
other opinions on this subject. It will be per- 
ceived that the bishop takes it for granted that 



188 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 



Mary Magdalen was the woman who anointed 
our Lord. 

" It is not intimated, in the history of the life 
of Jesus, that Judas had any malice against the 
person of Christ ; for when afterward he saw the 
matter was to end in the death of his Lord, he 
repented ; but a base and unworthy spirit of 
covetousness possessed him ; and the relics of 
indignation for missing the price of the ointment 
which the holy Magdalen had poured upon his 
feet, burnt in his bowels with a secret, dark, 
melancholic fire, and made an eruption into an 
act which all the ages of the world could never 
parallel. They appointed him for hire thirty 
pieces ; and some say that every piece did in 
value equal ten ordinary current denier s ; and so 
Judas was satisfied by receiving the worth of the 
three hundred pence at which he valued the 
nard pistick. But hereafter let no Christian be 
ashamed to be despised and undervalued ; for he 
will hardly meet so great a reproach as to have 
so disproportioned a price set upon his life as was 
upon the holy Jesus. St. Mary Magdalen thought 
it not good enough to aneal his sacred feet ; Ju- 
das thought it a sufficient price for his head ; for 
covetousness aims at base and low purchases, 
whilst holy love is great and comprehensive as 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. iSD 

the bosom of Heaven, and aims at nothing that 
is less than infinite." 

It has been a subject of surprise with many 
commentators, that so small a bribe should have 
tempted Judas to commit so great a crime; 
and it does seem as if some other motive must 
have cooperated with the love of money, in 
bringing his mind to its dreadful determination. 
Among the solutions which have been proposed 
of this apparent enigma, is the one which sup- 
poses that Judas was impatient of the delay of 
his Master to assume the state and magnificence 
of his Messiahship, and that his intention was to 
compel him to do so, by bringing him into such 
imminent peril, that he would be obliged to call 
his followers round him, work some signal miracle 
to free himself, and then mount the throne of 
David and of Israel. In this event, he of course 
calculated that he should come in for his share 
of those offices and rewards which he had been 
long pining for, and pining for in vain. Here, 
also, avarice is the governing motive ; only on a 
much larger scale than in the action as it is sim- 
ply narrated in the Scriptures. 

There is something to say in favor of this ex- 
planation, and something too may be said against 
it. It is safest and easiest to take the bare gospel 



190 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

statement, which merely informs us, that, for the 
consideration of thirty shekels of silver, Judas 
covenanted to betray his Master. No motive is 
expressly assigned for the act ; but as he is rep- 
resented as selfish and avaricious, we must pre- 
sume that selfishness and avarice moved him to 
this last and most awful crime. With regard 
to the price of his treachery, a survey of human 
nature and human passions will not authorize us 
to say that any sum is too small to tempt habitual 
and absorbing avarice to any act or degree of 
wickedness. Earthly, sensual, and contemptible, 
there is no knowing how low this passion will 
creep, nor how high it will strike ; how meanly 
it may dig for its dirty food, nor how daringly it 
may direct its poison. 

Having concluded his bargain with the priests, 
and as he thought secretly, Judas resumed his 
place among the twelve, and the next that we 
hear of him is at the last supper.* As they were 
eating, Jesus said, " Verily I say unto you, that 
one of you shall betray me." At this intimation, 

* That is, the supper of the Passover. It has been disputed, 
whether Judas was or was not present when Jesus instituted hie 
own supper, at the time of this feast ; and it is a difficult point to 
determine. " However it was," observes the author from whom 
I quoted last, " Christ, who was Lord of the sacraments, might 
dispense it as he pleased." 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 191 

the disciples, innocent as they all but one felt 
themselves to be, were exceedingly distressed, 
and they began each one to say unto him, " Lord, 
is it I?" Jesus, who had just before discovered 
the traitor, by a sign, to Simon Peter and John, 
answered, and said, " He that dippeth his hand 
with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. 
The Son of Man goeth, as it is written of him ; 
but wo unto that man by whom the Son of Man 
is betrayed ! it had been good for that man if he 
had not been born." Judas, who, in all proba- 
bility, saw that his Master's hand and his own 
were together in the dish, and that he was con- 
sequently accused of the treason, but still, per- 
haps, relying on the secrecy with which he had 
made his bargain, thought that he now was 
obliged to say something ; and pretending the 
same innocence as the rest, he asked the same 
question, " Lord, is it 1 ?" And Jesus, using no 
more signs, but directly accusing the miserable 
culprit, answered, " Thou hast said." He then 
added, " That which thou doest, do quickly." 
Judas, finding that no disguise or equivocation 
would now serve him, went immediately out. 
" And it was night," adds the historian. Night, 
indeed ! How dark, how sad, how portentous ! 
There never was another such since the world 



192 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

first woke from chaos. We seem to see it fall 
and settle like an outstretched pall, and embrace 
the whole of that devoted region with its mourning 
folds. Under its covering the wretched apostate 
— apostle no longer — stole forth to execute his 
purpose ; what a night there must have been in 
his bosom, and in his mind ! And what a night, 
of doubt and fear and mournfulness, did he leave 
in the hearts of the eleven, who now listened 
sadly to their Master, as he pursued his melting, 
though calm, sustained, and heavenly discourse, 
and gave them his farewell exhortations, and his 
farewell blessing ! 

It was yet night, when the small company, 
now made smaller by desertion, having finished 
their supper and sung a hymn together, went 
out, as was the frequent custom of Jesus, to the 
mount of Olives. Here he suffered his dreadful 
agony ; and here Judas soon appeared, with an 
armed band, which he had received from the 
priests and Pharisees ; for he knew that he should 
probably find his Master in this place of his usual 
resort. In order that his attendants might be 
sure of their victim, in this season of confusion 
and darkness, the traitor gave them a sign, telling 
them that whomsoever he should kiss, the same 
was he. Then going up to Jesus, as if he had 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 193 

been a friend, and intended to offer the common 
salutation of friendship and intimacy, he said, 
" Hail, Master ! " and kissed him. Reproach- 
fully Jesus said unto him, " Judas, betrayest 
thou the Son of Man with a kiss ?*' " Is it with 
a hypocritical kiss of affection and peace that 
you perform this deed of atrocious ingratitude 1 " 
Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and cap- 
tains of the temple, and the elders, who were 
come to him, "Be ye come out, as against a 
thief, with swords and staves ? When I was daily 
with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no 
hands against me ; but this is your hour, and the 
power of darkness." Then they took him, and 
brought him to the higlj priest's house. 

And now that Judas has accomplished his de- 
sign, is he gratified? At first perhaps he was. 
But it was a momentary satisfaction. Reflection 
succeeded passion, and grief and remorse fol- 
lowed hard upon the footsteps of reflection. He 
could think now ; and he could feel. He could 
think how good his Master had always been to 
him ; how perfectly free from guilt or stain, and 
yet how condescending and pitiful to human 
error. He felt the baseness of his own conduct ; 
he was appalled at the sight of his own enormous 



194 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

ingratitude; he began to hate himself, and to 
fear the light of morning, and to dread the as- 
pect of that mild face, which, however mildly it 
might regard him, could speak nothing to his 
heart but judgment and agony. Morning came. 
The relentless and exulting enemies of Jesus 
met to adopt measures for securing their prey. 
As the fate of his Master approached nearer to 
its bloody catastrophe, the anguish of Judas be- 
came more intense, and his crime showed itself 
in all its horrors. Perhaps he did not apprehend 
that the priests would have pushed their malignity 
to the extreme of death. At any rate, his own 
malice and cupidity were wholly terrified away, 
and he resolved to make one wild effort to save 
the victim. He rushed to the conclave, with the 
now hateful silver grasped convulsively in his 
hand, and reaching it out to his employers, he 
exclaimed, " I have sinned, in that I have be- 
trayed innocent blood." Deluded man ! Innocent 
or guilty it was the same to them, so long as they 
could shed it. " And they said, What is that to 
us I See thou to that ! " Stung to the quick by 
this cold and insulting reply, and feeling himself 
cast away like a tool which has been broken in 
the using, and having now no refuge from the 
fiends that were pursuing him, existence became 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 195 

a burthen too heavy for him to bear; and he 
threw the pieces of silver on the pavement of the 
temple, " and departed, and went and hanged 
himself." 

I know not how others may feel on perusing 
the history of this wretched man, but for my 
own part, I confess that my indignation is plen- 
tifully mingled with pity. How dark was the 
close of his short career ! How terrible was the 
punishment of his guilt ; death by his own hands! 
The price of blood lies scattered at the feet of 
the priests; the betrayer has come to his end, 
even before the betrayed ; his apostleship is end- 
ed ; no softened multitude will listen to the tidings 
of salvation from his lips ; no converts to a pure 
and purifying faith will bow to receive the waters 
of baptism from his hands; no countries will 
contend for the honor of his grave ; no churches 
will call themselves by his name ; no careful dis- 
ciples compose his limbs ; no enthusiastic devo- 
tees gather up his bones; his dust is scattered 
to the winds ; his name is only preserved by its 
eternal ignominy. He was a martyr — the first 
martyr — but it was to avarice.. He has had his 
followers, too; but they have been only those, 
who, as wicked and as wretched as himself, 
have, from that day to this, and in the countless 



196 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

forms of selfishness, sold, for a few pieces of sil- 
ver, their consciences, their Saviour, and their 
souls.* 

By an observable coincidence, it so happened 
that the money which Judas had received and 
returned, became desecrated by his touch. There 
was a Jewish law, which forbade that the price 



* In the Life of Thomas Firmin, that wealthy and eminently 
liberal and pious citizen and merchant of London in the seventeenth 
century, a curious legend is related from memory, respecting the 
punishment of Judas in another state, which shows how the feelings 
of men relent, even towards the greatest transgressors. The legend 
is cited by the author, to illustrate the value of charitable deeds. 
As, notwithstanding its wildness, it is conceived and told in a truly 
poetical manner, and has, if I may judge, a favorable influence on 
the affections, I shall offer no apology for repeating it. 

"I have read somewhere, (but so long since, that I forget the 
author's name, and the subject of his book,) that the punishment of 
Judas, who betrayed our Saviour, is, that he stands on the surface of 
a swelling, dreadful sea, with his feet somewhat below the water, as 
if he were about to sink. The writer saith, besides his continual 
horror and fear of going to the bottom, a most terrible tempest of 
hail and wind always beats on the traitor's naked body and head ; 
he suffers as much by cold, and the smart of the impetuous hail, as 
it is possible to imagine he could suffer by the fire of purgatory, or 
of hell. But, saith my author further, in this so great distress JuJas 
has one great comfort and relief ; for whereas the tempest would be 
insupportable, if it beat always upon him from all sides j at a little 
distance from him, and somewhat above him, there is stretched out 
a sheet of strong coarse linen cloth ; which sheet intercepts a great 
part of the tempest. Judas regales himself by turning sometimes 
one side, sometimes another side, of his head and body, to the shelter 
of this sheet. In short, the sheet is such a protection to him, that 
it defends him from the one half of his punishment. But by what 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 197 

of blood should be put into the treasury. The 
priests, therefore, though they gathered up the 
pieces which the traitor had thrown down before 
them, were unable to appropriate them to the 
uses of the temple, and after consulting together, 
agreed to purchase with them a field in the vi- 
cinity of Jerusalem, called the Potter's Field, to 
bury strangers in. The piece of ground thus 
purchased, acquired the significant and fearful 
name of The Field of Blood. 

When the tragedy of the crucifixion was over, 
and the eleven, comforted and reassured by the 
appearance of their risen Lord, had assembled 
together in Jerusalem, with the other disciples, 
to the number of about an hundred and twenty, 
Peter proposed to the company that a disciple 
should be chosen by lot to take " the ministry 
and apostleship, from which Judas, by transgres- 



meritorious action, or actions, did Judas deserve so great a favor? 
Our author answers, he gave just the same quantity of linen cloth 
to a certain poor family for shirting. It had been impossible that 
this gentleman should hit on such a conceit as this, but from our 
natural opinion of the value and merit of charity 5 it seems to us a 
virtue so excellent, that it may excuse even Judas from some part of 
his punishment. I can hardly afford to ask the reader's pardon for 
this tale ; I incline fro think, that divers others may be as well 
pleased with the wit of it, and the moral implied in it, as I have 
been, who remember it after above forty years' reading, without 
remembering either the author, or argument of the book." 



198 JUDAS ISCARIOT. 

sion, fell." In the address which he made on 
this occasion, he gives an account of the death 
of Judas, which diners somewhat from the rela- 
tion of Matthew. " Now this man," he says, 
" purchased a field with the reward of iniquity ; 
and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the 
midst, and all his bowels gushed out." Several 
explanations have been given to reconcile this 
discrepancy, either of which is sufficiently proba- 
ble to answer the purpose. The most common 
one is, that Judas hung himself, as Matthew 
relates, and afterwards, by some accident, fell 
from the place where he was suspended, and was 
mangled in the shocking manner described by 
Peter. 

According to the apostle's recommendation, 
his brethren proceeded to fill the traitor's for- 
feited place ; and the lot fell upon Matthias, who 
had long been a disciple of Jesus, and is conjec- 
tured to have been one of the seventy. Thus 
was the miserable Judas, the apostate, the suicide, 
rejected from the apostolic company, even after 
his death, and his name and his memory blotted 
out, as entirely as was possible, from the records 
of the faithful. With the passages of Scripture 
which were applied on this occasion by Peter, 



JUDAS ISCARIOT. 199 

we will conclude his mournful biography. " For 
it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habi- 
tation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein ; 
and, His bishopric let another take." 



MATTHIAS. 



For all the holy and spiritual purposes of 
apostleship, and for all the purposes of honorable 
remembrance in the Christian church, the place 
of Judas Iscariot is vacated, as we have seen, 
and must be supplied by another, in order that 
the apostolic number may be complete. The 
name of Matthias must be joined to the foregoing 
list, though his name is not once mentioned in 
the Gospels. We shall then have thirteen names, 
but only twelves apostles still ; twelve authorized 
founders of the Christian church; twelve com- 
missioned teachers of Christianity to the world ; 
twelve judges of the twelve tribes of Israel. 

The early determination of the eleven apostles 
to fill the spiritual throne from which Judas had 
fallen, is proof of one or two interesting points. 
It proves, that, having recovered from their tem- 
porary panic, they were fully resolved to set about 
the work of their Master, and had no other idea 
but that of proclaiming his name, and planting 



MATTHIAS. 201 

his religion, according to his behest, and with 
the holy certainty of divine assistance and pro- 
tection, and of final success. — It proves that 
their zeal and confidence were not confined with- 
in the limits of their own number, but were 
shared by many others, who stood ready to fill 
the vacant post of honor and danger, and to join 
in the cares and perils of the new and marvellous 
enterprise. — It proves, moreover, the regard of 
the apostles for the integrity of the original num- 
ber of their company; the number which the 
appointment of their Master had established and 
sanctified ; the patriarchal number of twelve. 
Though two individuals were judged worthy of 
the forfeited station, only one could be received 
to it. 

It was necessary that the candidates for the 
apostleship should be personally acquainted with 
the main events of the life of Jesus, in order 
that they might bear direct witness thereto. 
" Wherefore of these men," said Peter, in the 
assembly of one hundred and twenty disciples, 
" who have companied with us all the time that 
the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, be- 
ginning from the baptism of John, unto that same 
day that he was taken up from us, must one be 
ordained to be a witness with us of his resurreo 



202 MATTHIAS. 

tion." From this whole number, including very 
likely the seventy who are mentioned in the Gos- 
pels, two were selected as candidates, — " Joseph 
called Barnabas, whose surname was Justus, and 
Matthias;" — and after prayer to God for the 
disposal of the lots, they were cast, " and the lot 
fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with 
the eleven apostles." 

All that we know of the apostle, who thus 
closed up and made whole the sacred ring which 
had been so violently broken, is related in the 
above account. We may say of Matthias, that 
he was one of those who had been interested 
from the beginning in the person and claims of 
Jesus, and had travelled from place to place with 
him and with his first twelve apostles, hearing 
his instructions, beholding his miracles, witness- 
ing his holy life during his ministry on earth, and 
convinced by ocular demonstration of his resur- 
rection from the dead. We may also be admitted 
to infer from the selection which was made of 
him, that he was distinguished among the com- 
panions of the apostles and followers of Jesus, 
for his mental and moral qualities, for his wisdom 
and his virtue. 

Ecclesiastical history furnishes us with but 
poor and uncertain minutes of the apostolical 



MATTHIAS. 203 

labors of Matthias. An author of no great credit 
or antiquity, asserts " that he preached the Gospel 
in Macedonia ; where the Gentiles, to make an 
experiment of his faith and integrity, gave him 
a poisonous and intoxicating potion, which he 
cheerfully drank off, in the name of Christ, with- 
out the least prejudice to himself; and that when 
the same potion had deprived above two hundred 
and fifty of their sight, he, laying his hands upon 
them, restored them to their sight ; — with a 
great deal more of the same stamp," says Cave, 
" which I have neither faith enough to believe, 
nor leisure enough to relate." Cave goes on to 
observe, that the more probable account of the 
apostle is, that from Judea, where he first labored, 
he travelled eastward and preached in Cappa- 
docia, where he at last received the crown of 
martyrdom on the cross. 

Even the probability of this latter account, is, 
however, but slight. Let it suffice, that he was 
a follower of our Lord from the first ; that he 
was a companion of the apostles before he was 
chosen to be one of them ; that he was consid- 
ered worthy to be joined to their band ; and that 
he must have labored for Christ and the church 
in a manner conformable to the trust which was 



204 MATTHIAS. 

reposed in him, and the station which he was 
divinely allotted to fill. 

The Greeks commemorate Matthias on the 
9th of August, but the Western Churches on the 
24th of February. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



The lives and characters of the twelve apostles 
of Christ have now been separately considered ; 
but there are some general reflections upon them, 
regarded collectively, which naturally suggested 
themselves during the course that we have been 
through, and which may not prove uninteresting 
or uninstructive to those who have accompanied 
me in the way. 

We find, with respect to the circumstances of 
their external condition — their country, their 
fortunes, their education — that they were such 
as most readily presented themselves to the search 
of Jesus, and yet not such, by any means, as we 
should suppose would have been effective in the 
accomplishment of his designs. 

In the first place, the apostles were all Gali- 
leans ; natives or inhabitants of the district of 
Galilee. Seven of them, Peter and Andrew, 
James and John, Philip, Bartholomew, and Mat- 
thew, are expressly stated in the Gospels to have 



206 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

belonged to the district of Galilee. The same is 
in the highest degree probable of all the rest, 
with the exception, perhaps, of Judas Iscariot. 
We find that the eleven, after Jesus had ascended 
into heaven before their sight, were thus spoken 
to by the two angels ; " Ye men of Galilee, why 
stand ye gazing up into heaven ? " And at the 
day of Pentecost, when they received the gift of 
tongues, the people who were present, exclaimed, 
" Behold, are not all these who speak Galileans'?" 
Indeed, so many of the first disciples of Christ 
were from Galilee, that they were all called Gali- 
leans at first, as we learn from contemporary 
historians. 

This country constituted the northern portion 
of Palestine, and its people, though hardy and 
brave, were not much respected by the Jews of 
Jerusalem, who regarded them as illiterate and 
unpolished, and unworthy of producing a prophet. 
The Pharisees, reproving Nicodemus for the in- 
terest which he expressed in Jesus, said to him, 
" Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look ; 
for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." The very 
speech of the Galileans was a provincial dialect, 
and betrayed their remoteness from the capital ; 
as we have seen was the case with Peter in the 
palace of Caiaphas. In short they were looked 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 207 

down upon by the more cultivated, and, if I may 
use the epithet, Attic part of the nation, as a 
rude, unenlightened, Boeotian branch of the 
common Jewish family. Jesus, though born in 
Bethlehem, was brought up in Nazareth, which 
was the most despised town in this most despised 
province ; and therefore in selecting Galileans to 
be his apostles, he selected those who were near- 
est to him, and with whom he was most familiar. 
And yet what materials were they for construct- 
ing and building up a new religion, which was 
to be the wonder, the beauty, and the glory of the 
earth ! How little adapted they seem to be for 
their lofty destination ! They are the last men, 
these poor Galileans, the very last men, as we 
should suppose, to confound the learned, to resist 
the mighty, to convert the world. They do not 
seem to be made for such a work. There is no 
fitness in them to be instructers and reformers. 
Their very birthplace forbids it. The choice of 
them, therefore, to be the intimate disciples of 
Christ, and the founders of a new religious sys- 
tem, appears to me to be a mark of the divine 
mission of Christ, and the divine character 
and origin of Christianity. To my ear the 
language of it is this; The person, who, un- 
dertaking to introduce a peculiar and original 



208 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

faith to the world, selected, or, as it would rather 
appear, took almost carelessly up, his associates 
and confidential coadjutors, from his own neigh- 
bourhood, from his own kindred, from the shores 
of a lake, from the streets of a village, from be- 
fore his own doorstone, instead of seeking out 
the learned and the powerful from among the 
Pharisees and chief men of the nation, must have 
set out in his work with the assurance that there 
was a Power and a Wisdom above, which could 
and would supply every deficiency among his 
followers ; and the event proved that the defici- 
ency was supplied from a divine, all sufficient, 
and only sufficient Source. 

These Galileans were also poor. Four of them 
were certainly fishermen ; and others of their 
number were probably of the same profession. 
One was a publican, and of the inferior order of 
publicans.* They not only belonged to an un- 

* It is a habit among many of the Fathers, and other writers on 
these subjects, to assert that Matthew was rich, in order to magnify 
the sacrifice which he made in leaving all to follow Jesus. But 
there is not the least ground in Scripture for supposing that he 
formed an exception to the general poverty, or at any rate, very 
moderate circumstances of the other apostles. He was able, to be 
sure, to give a supper, at which some Pharisees were present, who 
were not likely to honor with their presence the house of a poor 
man; but he might have done this, and yet not have been very 
rich. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 209 

dervalued province, but they were destitute of 
one of those means by which great ends are 
usually produced in the world. They were not, 
indeed, wretchedly destitute. They were above 
actual want, though they worked for their living; 
and their dwellings, though humble, appear to 
have been comfortable. But they were far from 
being rich ; far from possessing any of that in- 
fluence and consequence which wealth so univer- 
sally commands. And yet without wealth, they 
effected what no wealth could have brought to 
pass ; and became of more consequence than 
ever invests princes. 

Beside these disadvantages, they were also un- 
learned. I do not mean that they were rudely 
ignorant, or that they were unacquainted with 
the sacred literature of their nation ; but they 
were neither deeply versed in lore, nor elegantly 
accomplished. They could not take a place 
among the well educated portion of their coun- 
trymen. Their manner of expressing themselves, 
at once betrayed this kind and degree of igno- 
rance to those who were more polished and better 
instructed. Thus the council of elders and rulers 
before which Peter and John were arraigned, 
perceived that those apostles were " unlearned 
and ignorant men." And yet they were not so 



210 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

unlearned and ignorant that they did not, both 
of them, give to the church, and to the world, 
writings in the Greek language, which, though 
not exactly classical, were by no means despica- 
ble, even in their style. But their speech, pro- 
vincial and uncultivated as it was, sent conviction 
to the hearts of multitudes ; and their writings, 
simple and unpolished as they were, threw a new 
and heavenly radiance over that dark world, have 
instructed ages and generations, and impart more 
real knowledge on the highest objects of thought, 
than the greatest philosophers of antiquity had 
ever been able to impart. To my mind this is a 
remarkable fact ; and one which does not easily 
admit of but one explanation. 

We may sum up the circumstances of the ex- 
ternal condition of the apostles, by saying, that 
they were what would now be called plain, sub- 
stantial men, in the lower walks of life. They 
were in a situation, not exceedingly depressed, 
and yet more remarkable for its humility than 
otherwise. Their education was only such a one 
as was usually bestowed on the common people 
of their nation, and in all probability consisted 
chiefly in a knowledge of the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament, which Scriptures they interpreted 
according the instructions of the Rabbis, and 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 211 

the general expectations, opinions, and prejudices 
of their countrymen. 

With regard to their natural dispositions, tal- 
ents, and endowments of mind, there was among 
them the same assortment and variety of genius 
and character as would generally be found in the 
same number of men called together in a similar 
manner. Peter was irascible, impetuous, fervent, 
generous. John was amiable, affectionate, stead- 
fast. Thomas was honest and scrutinizing. 
Matthew was modest and sensible. James the 
Greater was active and aspiring. James the Less 
was dignified in his sentiments and deportment. 
Some were forward, and some were retired. 
Some were eloquent, and others were silent. 
All, but one, appear to have been virtuous ; and 
even that one was not without his use. They 
all, with that single exception, combined harmo- 
niously in attachment to their Master and devo- 
tion to his cause. We may see in this fact, that 
Christianity was adapted to different dispositions, 
and received by different minds ; that it was not 
merely the enthusiastic who accepted and sup- 
ported it ; that it was judged by different tests ; 
that it was regarded through various optics ; that 
zeal embraced it ; that cool sense approved it ; 
that candor and honesty were convinced by it ; 



212 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

that even disappointed avarice could report noth- 
ing against it. We see too in this fact, an instance 
of the truth, which is at once so obvious and so 
little regarded, that a variety of genius and dis- 
position is in accordance with the designs of 
Providence in its most important operations with 
human instruments, as well as in the daily and 
social business of the world ; and that a character 
is by no means to be despised because its qualities 
are not shining and striking. There are different 
parts to be performed, requiring different powers 
and capacities; and he who achieves his part, 
though it be a silent and undistinguished one, is 
a good servant. 

We are told much, in the writings of the New 
Testament, of the words and actions of Simon 
Peter ; but little or nothing of those of Simon 
Zelotes and Bartholomew; and yet these latter 
may have accomplished tasks which were neces- 
sary to the progress of the great work, but which 
would not have suited the peculiar capacity of 
Peter. They may have reached minds which he 
could not touch ; they may have performed duties, 
subordinate indeed, but still necessary, such as 
he was not gifted to perform. Each apostle takes 
his own place, and stands easily and naturally in 
it ; neither stretching after what was above, nor 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 213 

contemning what was below him. In this in- 
stance, as well as in others, we may derive a 
lesson from them. 

In another point of view, the company of the 
apostles presents us with a spectacle, which, though 
it may not be a very instructive, is certainly a 
pleasing one. Within their common fraternity 
there were no less than three distinct bands 
of natural brethren. Peter and Andrew were 
brothers ; John and James the Greater were 
brothers; and so also were James the Less, Jude 
or Thaddeus, and Simon Zelotes. With the ties 
of a common faith, of a common toil, and a com- 
mon danger, were thus beautifully blended the 
ties of consanguinity and domestic affection ; and 
a texture of harmonious coloring was completed 
in this companionship, such as is seldom woven 
on earth. The three brethren last named were 
also near relations of Jesus himself. The reflec- 
tions which are readily suggested by this cir- 
cumstance, are, that our Saviour was beloved at 
home as well as abroad ; and that the familiarity 
of relationship did not impair the respect in which 
he was held as a master and teacher. We see 
also in this fact, another cause of his love for 
his disciples, and of their love for him ; a cause 
which is far from diminishing our reverence for 



214 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

him, or our interest in them. They were not 
strangers to each other ; they were not brought 
together merely by the attractions of sympathy, 
or the demands of a great work. They were not 
countrymen only ; they were neighbours, part- 
ners, early acquaintances; — they were more, for 
they were kinsmen, with the mutual attachments 
of kindred ; and they go about on their labors 
before us, a more social, united, confidential, 
and interesting group, than if there had been 
no family bonds to strengthen and adorn their 
union. 

Let us next view the apostles as authors, and 
as subjects of history. I should wonder at the 
state of that man's affections who could read the 
Gospels, two of which were written by apostles, 
without being struck by the exceeding modesty 
and self-forgetfulness of the disciples, and their 
absorbing attention to one individual, their vene- 
rated and beloved Master. There are no vaunts 
in those sacred histories ; no instances of open 
or disguised egotism. When the writer speaks 
of his fellow disciples, he relates with the utmost 
simplicity their faults, and prejudices, and want 
of faith, as well as the better parts of their char- 
acters. . And he speaks of his Master, too, with 
equal simplicity, but with how much greater fre- 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 215 

quency and devotion ! He brings every other 
person, every other thing, he brings himself under 
perfect subordination to this main subject of his 
narrative. He does this, not artfully and in- 
tentionally, but unavoidably ; from feeling, from 
impulse, from the conviction that there is but one 
individual of whom he is giving an account; and 
if others are mentioned, they are mentioned be- 
cause they are in some manner connected with 
that person. If Jesus has occasion to praise one 
of his. disciples, the evangelist records the fact 
without envy ; if that disciple, or any other one 
is rebuked, he relates it without evasion or excuse. 
He keeps himself to the sayings and actions of 
his Master, as to his chief concern. He indulges 
in no inferences, no moral reflections, no expres- 
sion of his own views or feelings ; he writes pure 
history, simple narrative ; and on all occasions 
he tells, without reserve and without suspicion, 
the plain truth; we see and feel that he does; 
there is an honesty about every relation which 
cannot be mistaken or suspected. And we see 
and feel, too, that the chief personage of the 
history is not brought out into such entire relief, 
into such a concentration of light, by any effort 
or design on the part of the writer, but only and 
wholly on account of the unapproached sublimity 
and intrinsic superiority of the character itself. 



216 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

There is one other circumstance in the lives 
of the apostles, which I am bound to notice for 
the sake of its singularity and importance ; and 
then I will leave them to the meditations and 
further inquiries of my readers. I have several 
times had occasion to speak of the national pre- 
judices of these men, and the difficulty which 
they had to comprehend the entire spirituality 
of their Master's system and kingdom, and to 
admit into their associations with the Jewish 
Messiah and Saviour the ideas of poverty, lowli- 
ness, suffering, and death. Attached as they 
were to him by all the ties which we have enu- 
merated, we see that when he was actually 
apprehended by his enemies, they all forsook him 
and fled ; that they did not return to him ; and 
that on the Mount where he was crucified, there 
was but one of them who appeared to witness 
the death of their Master and kinsman, and the 
extinction of all their hopes. The event was one 
for which they were wholly unprepared. It con- 
founded them. Their preconceived opinions were 
so strong, that when Jesus had before spoken to 
them of his death, they shut up their ears and 
their eyes, they would nut understand him. We 
do not find a single hint in the Gospels, that they 
ever did understand him. The event itself was 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 217 

a blow, which at once enlightened and convinced 
them, and scattered them abroad also, like sheep 
without a shepherd. This is one scene. 

And now let us behold another, which imme- 
diately succeeds it. Not a great many days 
elapse, when we find these very men, disheart- 
ened, disappointed, terrified, and dispersed as 
they had been, all gathered together again with 
one accord, fully recovered from all their depres- 
sion, and with a settled resolution stamped on all 
their demeanour, which never marked them be- 
fore, even while their Master was with them, to 
lead, combine, and encourage them. The cata- 
logue of their names is full, with one vacancy 
only, which they immediately supply. They begin 
to preach the doctrines of a crucified Saviour, 
and we hear no more of their earthly notions of 
his kingdom. Their crude ideas and temporal 
hopes have, in a few days, vanished away. They 
preach Christianity, simply and purely. They 
gather to themselves thousands of converts. 
They are persecuted, imprisoned, threatened ; 
they behold one of their number soon cut off 
with the sword ; they are surrounded by enemies 
and temptations ; and yet they never hesitate nor 
falter ; no, not the weakest of them ; there is not 
a single defection from their reunited brother- 



218 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



hood. They go through country after country, 
and toil after toil, laying down their lives, one 
after another, for the holy truth, and they leave 
disciples behind them every where, to teach, and 
dare, and suffer, and do, and die, as they did. 

Now what is the cause of all this, and how is 
it to be accounted for ? Unbelievers may have 
many explanations to give, and they may be in- 
genious ones. I havel)ut one, and it is a simple 
one. It is, that their crucified Master rose from 
the dead, as they have told us he did ; that he 
instructed them, as they have told us he did; 
and that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, was sent 
from the Father, according to his promise, to 
enlighten and sustain them. In short, I consider 
the conduct of the apostles, at, and after the 
death of Jesus, as perhaps the strongest proof of 
the reality of his glorious resurrection. If he 
rose from the dead, and appeared to them, and 
instructed and confirmed them, I can account 
for the sudden change in their characters, and 
for their subsequent knowledge and perseverance, 
and boldness, and success. If he rose not from 
the dead, I cannot account for those things ; and 
the whole subject remains to me a deep historical 
mystery. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 219 

Simple, honest, excellent men ! raised up by 
Providence for wonderful ends by wonderful 
means ! Your lives, unadorned as they are, and 
comprehended in a few plain words, are yet alone 
among the lives of men ; alone, in the varieties 
and contrasts of their fortunes ; alone, in the 
multitude and importance of their consequences. 
We should be senseless, if we did not perceive 
the influence which you have exerted on the 
character and opinions of mankind. We should 
be thankless, if we did not acknowledge the 
benefits of that influence, and bless God that we 
live to know and feel them. And we humbly 
pray to God, the universal Father, the Source of 
all excellence and truth, that our fidelity to our 
common Master may be like yours ; that our 
perseverance in executing his commands may 
be like yours ; and that like yours may be our 
courage and constancy, if we should ever be 
called on to sacrifice comfort, worldly considera- 
tion, or life itself, to duty, conscience, and faith. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



SAINT ANDREW'S DAY. 

November 30. 

Collect. Almighty God, who didst give such 
grace unto thy holy apostle Saint Andrew, that 
he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus 
Christ, and followed him without delay ; grant 
unto us all, that we, being called by thy holy 
word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently 
to fulfil thy holy commandments, through the 
same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



HYMN. 

Who leads the glorious company, 
The Apostles' sainted band? 

First on the roll of duty see 
The holy Andrew stand. 



222 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

He first the promised Saviour sought 

Within his low abode ; 
And whom he found, to others taught, 

The Christ and Lamb of God. 

And he, among the first, the call 

To tend his Lord obeyed ; 
Forsook his ship, his home, his all ; 

And followed where he led. 

" Fisher of men," by night, by day, 

His ready toils he set ; 
Intent to close his captive prey 

Within the Gospel net. 

Nor scrupled he to yield his breath, 

By many a labor tried, 
And die, with willing mind, the death 

By which his Master died. 

And now his name with service meet, 

Leads on the sacred year, 
And bids the Church prepare to greet 

The Saviour's Advent near. 

Bp. Mant. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 223 

SAINT THOMAS'S DAY. 

December 21. 

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who 
for the more confirmation of the faith didst suffer 
thy holy apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy 
Son's resurrection ; grant us so perfectly, and 
without all doubt to believe in thy Son Jesus 
Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be 
reproved. Hear us, O Lord, through the same 
Jesus Christ, in whose name we ascribe unto 
thee all honor and glory, now and for evermore. 
Amen. 



HYMN. 

I hear the glorious Sufferer tell, 
How on his cross he vanquished hell. 

And all the powers beneath ; 
Transported and inspired, my tongue 
Attempts his triumphs in a song ; 
" How has the serpent lost his sting, and where 's 
thy victory, death ? " 



224 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

But when he shows his hands and heart, 
With those dear prints of dying smart, 

He sets my soul on fire ; 
Not the beloved John could rest 
With more delight upon that breast, 
Nor Thomas pry into those wounds with more 
intense desire. 

Kindly he opens me his ear, 

And bids me pour my sorrow there, 

And tell him all my pains. 
Thus while I ease my burdened heart, 
In every woe he bears a part, 
His arms embrace me, and his hand my drooping 
head sustains. 

Watts. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 225 

SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S DAY. 
December 27. 

Collect. Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to 
cast thy bright beams of light upon thy church, 
that it, being enlightened by the doctrine of thy 
blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John, may 
so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may 
at length attain to the light of everlasting life, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

Among the planets heavenly bright, 
Which round the Sun of glory shine ; 

No orb emits a purer light, 
A holier radiance, John, than thine. 

Apostle thou of Christ the Lord ; 

Prophet of scenes to come decreed ; 
Historian of the incarnate Word ; 

Martyr in will, if not in deed. 

Yet by another name we deem 

Thy claim to high renown approved, 

A name, of equal praise the theme, 
" Disciple, by thy Master loved." 
p 



226 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

Be ours to mark His portrait fair 
Whom thy recording pencil drew j 

Be ours to mark thy faithful care. 
To his divine commandments true ; 

To note thy life ; to see thee fling 
The beams of sacred truth abroad ; 

And soar with thee on eagle wing, 

And view unblamed the throne of God. 

And ma.j our faith, blest Saint, like thine 
By love to God and man be proved ; 

That we in our degree may shine, 
" Disciples by our Master loved." 

Bp. Mant. 



ANOTHER; 

Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man 
do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what 
is that to thee ? follow thou me. John xxi. 21, 22. 

" Lord, and what shall this man do? " — 
Ask'st thou, Christian, for thy friend ? 

If his love for Christ be true, 
Christ hath told thee of his encL 

This is he whom God approves ; 

This is he whom Jesus loves. 






COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 227 

Ask not of him more than this ; 

Leave it in his Saviour's breast, 
Whether, early called to bliss, 

He in youth shall find his rest, 
Or armed in his station wait 
Till his Lord be at the gate ; — 

Whether in his lonely course, 

(Lonely, not forlorn) he stay, 
Or with love's supporting force 

Cheat the toil and cheer the way ; 
Leave it all in his high hand, 
Who doth hearts as streams command.* 

Gales from heaven, if so He will, 

Sweeter melodies can wake 
On the lonely mountain rill, 

Than the meeting waters make. 
Who hath the Father and the Son, 
May be left — but not alone. 

Sick or healthful, slave or free, 
Wealthy, or despised and poor — 

What is that to him or thee, 
So his love to Christ endure ? 

When the shore is won at last, 

Who will count the billows past? 



* The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of 
water ; he turneth it whithersoever he will. Prov. xxi. 1. 



228 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



Only, since our souls will shrink 
At the touch of natural grief, 

When our earthly loved ones sink, 
Lend us, Lord, thy sure relief; 

Patient hearts, their pain to see, 

And thy grace, to follow thee. 

Keble. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 229 

SAINT MATTHIAS'S DAY. 
February 24. 

Collect. O Almighty God, who into the 
place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faith- 
ful servant Matthias to be of the number of the 
twelve apostles; grant that thy church, being 
alway preserved from false apostles, may be or- 
dered and guided by faithful and true pastors, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



H YM N. 

Who is God's chosen priest ? 
He who on Christ stands waiting day and night, 
Who traced his holy steps, nor ever ceased, 

From Jordan banks to Bethphage height ; — 

Who hath learned lowliness 
From his Lord's cradle, patience from his cross ; 
Whom poor men's eyes and hearts consent to 
bless ; 

To whom, for Christ, the world is loss ; — 

Who both in agony 
Hath seen him, and in glory ; and in both 
Owned him divine, and yielded, nothing loth, 

Body and soul, to live and die, 



230 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

In witness of his Lord, 
In humble following of his Saviour dear. 
This is the man to wield the unearthly sword, 

Warring unharmed with sin and fear. 

But who can e'er suffice — 
What mortal — for this more than angel's task. 
Winning or losing souls, Thy life-blood's price? 

The gift were too diyine to ask, 

But Thou hast made it sure 
By thy dear promise to thy Church and Bride, 
That Thou, on earth, wouldst aye with her endure, 

Till earth to heaven be purified. 

Keble. 



A GOOD PRIEST. 

Give me the Priest these graces shall possess ; - 
Of an ambassador the just address ; 
A father's tenderness ; a shepherd's care ; 
A leader's courage, which the cross can bear ; 
A ruler's awe ; a watchman's wakeful eye ; 
A pilot's skill, the helm in storms to ply ; 
A fisher's patience ; and a laborer's toil ; 
A guide's dexterity to disembroil ; 
A prophet's inspiration from above ; 
A teacher's knowledge — and a Saviour's love. 

Bp. Kenn. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 231 

SAINT PHILIP AND SAINT JAMES'S* DAY. 

May 1. 

Collect. O Almighty God, whom truly to 
know is everlasting life ; grant us perfectly to 
know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the 
truth, and the life, that following the steps of thy 
holy apostles Saint Philip and Saint James, we 
may steadfastly walk in the way that leadeth to 
eternal life, through the same thy Son Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

Holy Jesus, Saviour blest, 
As, by passion strong possest, 
Through this world of sin we stray, 
Thou to guide us art the way. 

Holy Jesus, when the night 
Of error blinds our clouded sight. 
Round the cheering day to throw, 
Saviour, then the truth art thou. 

* James the Less. 



232 COLLECTS AND HYxMNS. 

Holy Jesus, when our power 
Fails us in temptation's hour, 
All unequal to the strife ; 
Thou to aid us art the life. 

Who would reach his heavenly home ; 
Who would to the Father come ; 
Who the Father's presence see ; 
Jesus, he must come by thee. 

Bp. Manx. 






COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 233 

SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST'S DAY. 
June 24. 

Collect. Almighty God, by whose provi- 
dence thy servant John Baptist was wonderfully 
born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son, 
our Saviour, by preaching repentance ; make us 
so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we 
may truly repent according to his preaching; 
and, after his example, constantly speak the truth, 
boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the 
truth's sake ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 



HYMN. 

Hark through the lonely waste, 

By foot of man unpaced, 
" Prepare the way," a warning voice resounds! 

" Level the opposing hill, 

The hollow valley fill, 
Make straight the crooked, smooth the rugged 

grounds ; 
Prepare a passage — form it plain and broad ; — 
And through the desert make a highway for our 
God! 3 ' 



234 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

Thine, Baptist, was the cry, 

In ages long gone by, 
Heard in clear accents by the prophet's ear ; 

As if 't were thine to wait, 

And with imperial state 
Herald some eastern monarch's proud career ; 
Who thus might march his host in full array, 
And speed through trackless wilds his unresisted 
way. 

But other task hadst thou 

Than lofty hills to bow, 
Make straight the crooked, the rough places plain. 

Thine was the harder part 

To smooth the human heart, 
The wilderness where sin had fixed his reign ; 
To make deceit his mazy wiles forego, 
Bring down high-vaulting pride, and lay ambition 
low. 

Such, Baptist, was thy care, 

That no obstruction there 
Might check the progress of the King of kings ; 

But that a clear highway 

Might welcome the array 
Of heavenly graces which his presence brings ; 
And where repentance had prepared the road, 
There faith might enter in, and love to man and 
God. 

Bp. Mant. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 235 

SAINT PETER'S DAY. 

June 29. 

Collect. O Almighty God, who by thy Son 
Jesus Christ didst give to thy apostle Saint Peter 
many excellent gifts, and commandedst him ear- 
nestly to feed thy flock ; make, we beseech thee, 
all pastors diligently to preach thy holy word, 
and the people obediently to follow the same, 
that they may receive the crown of everlasting 
glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



HYMN. 

Lord! when thy Peter, weak in faith, 

By terror too severely tried, 
Failed in thine hour of threatened death, 

And thee forsook, and thee denied : — 

When thrice his ear the challenge heard, 
And thrice his tongue renounced thy name, 

And each sad time the recreant word 

More loud and more impassioned came ; — 

One look from thee his fault reproved, 

And made his slumbering conscience start ; 

One look from thee, so dearly loved. 
Spoke daggers to his bleeding heart ; 



236 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

And sent him forth a prey to grief, 

Unheeded all his former fears, 
To seek in solitude relief 

From bitter and repentant tears. 

Lord ! when by human frailty led, 
We pass thy gracious warning by, 

Prone as we are awry to tread, 
And thee forsake, and thee deny j — 

Grant us to feel the keen rebuke, 

By conscience, faithful guardian, sent, 

As if we saw thy pitying look, 
When on thy frail Apostle bent. 

That pitying look ! O may it melt 
Our hearts in penitential showers! 

May Peter's grief by us be felt, 
And O ! be his forgiveness ours ! 

Bp. Mant. 






ANOTHER. 

When Herod would have brought him out, the same night Peter 
was sleeping. Acts xii. 6. 

Thou thrice denied, yet thrice beloved, 
Watch by thine own forgiven friend ; 

In sharpest perils faithful proved, 
Let his soul love thee to the end. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 237 

The prayer is heard — else why so deep 
His slumber on the eve of death? 

And wherefore smiles he in his sleep 
As one who drew celestial breath? 

He loves and is beloved again — 
Can his soul choose but be at rest? 

Sorrow hath fled away, and Pain 
Dares not invade the guarded nest. 

He dearly loves, and not alone : 

For his winged thoughts are soaring high 
Where never yet frail heart was known 

To breathe in vain affection's sigh. 

He loves and weeps — but more than tears 
Have sealed thy welcome and his love — 

One look lives in him, and endears 
Crosses and wrongs where'er he rove : 

That gracious chiding look. Thy call 
To win him to himself and Thee, 

Sweetening the sorrow of his fall, 
Which else were rued too bitterly. 

Even through the veil of sleep it shines, 
The memory of that kindly glance 5 — 

The Angel watching by divines 

And spares awhile his blissful trance. 



238 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

Or haply to his native lake 

His vision wafts him back, to talk 

With Jesus, ere his flight he take, 
As in that solemn evening walk, 

When to the bosom of his friend, 

The Shepherd, He whose name is Good, 

Did His dear lambs and sheep commend, 
Both bought and nourished with His blood: 

Then laid on him the inverted tree, 
Which firm embraced with heart and arm, 

Might cast o'er hope and memory, 
O'er life and death, its awful charm. 

With brightening heart he bears it on, 
His passport through the eternal gates, 

To his sweet home — so nearly won, 
He seems, as by the door he waits, 

The unexpressive notes to heai\ 
Of angel song and angel motion, 

Rising and falling on the ear 
Like waves in Joy's unbounded ocean. — 

His dream is changed — the Tyrant's voice 
Calls to that last of glorious deeds — 

But as he rises to rejoice, 

Not Herod but an Angel leads. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 239 

He dreams he sees a lamp flash bright. 
Glancing around his prison room — 

But 'tis a gleam of heavenly light 
That fills up all the ample gloom. 

The flame, that in a few short years 
Deep through the chambers of the dead 

Shall pierce, and dry the fount of tears, 
Is waving o'er his dungeon-bed. 

Touched he upstarts — his chains unbind — 
Through darksome vault, up massy stair. 

His dizzy, doubting footsteps wind 
To freedom and cool moonlight air. 

Then all himself, all joy and calm, 
Though for a while his hand forego, 

Just as it touched, the martyr's palm, 
He turns him to his task below ; 

The pastoral staff, the keys of heaven, 
To wield awhile in grey-haired might, 

Then from his cross to spring forgiven, 
And follow Jesus out of sight. 

Keble. 



240 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

SAINT JAMES'S* DAY. 
July 26. 

Collect. Grant, O merciful God, that as 
thine holy apostle Saint James, leaving his father 
and all that he had, without delay was obedient 
unto the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and 
followed him; so we, forsaking all worldly and 
carnal affections, may be evermore ready to follow 
thy holy commandments, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

And couldst thou, James, to win the meed 
Of glory for his saints decreed, 

Thy Saviour's cup of sorrow taste ? 
And couldst thou bear, above thee spread. 
The waves baptismal, dark and dread, 

Which o'er thy Saviour past ? 

Thou couldst : such aid his Spirit lent ! 
The stripes, the bonds, the imprisonment, 
The scornful look, the taunting word, 

* The Greater. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 241 

The angry council's stern decree. 
The tyrant's rage and cruelty. 
And last the fatal sword: 

These came in turn ; and then thy death ! 
O thou, to wear a martyr's wreath 

The first of all thy brotherhood ! 
First of thy Saviour's chosen train, 
Like him the cup of woe to drain, 

Like him baptized in blood ! 

We dare not rend the veil aside, 

By which the All-knowing wills to hide 

The secrets of the unseen world : 
But to our vision it should seem, 
Might we without irreverence deem 

Of that dark veil unfurled ; 

Should seem that thou wert there to see, 
O James, O son of Zebedee, 

And he, the favored of your Lord, 
Martyr with thee at least in will ; 
Together throned on God's high hill 

Beside your King adored. 

For not in vain his word was given 

That ye, who have through sufferings striven, 

For him and for his Gospel known, 
With him shall in his glory dwell, 
And judge the tribes of Israel, 

Throned by Messiah's throne. 
Q 



242 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



Nor vain the word, that whosoe'er 
Shall the Messiah's name prefer 

To houses, parents, children, wife ; 
Shall hundred-fold by Him be blest. 
Be welcomed to his Father's rest. 

And dwell in endless life. 

Bp. Mant. 



I 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 243 

SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. 

August 24. 

Collect. O Almighty and everlasting God, 
who didst give to thine apostle Bartholomew 
grace truly to believe and to preach thy word ; 
grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church to love 
that word which he believed, and both to preach 
and receive the same, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

" Behold, in whom no guile I find, 

An Israelite indeed ! " 
Nathanael, thus thy virtuous mind 

Did Israel's sovereign read. 

A guileless heart ! what fairer scene 

In all this world below, 
Does nature's loveliness contain, 

Or God's creation show? 

Fair are the snow-wreaths, that infold 
Yon Alpine mountain's head ; 

Fair is the stream, all crystal, rolled 
Clear o'er its pebbly bed ; 



244 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

Fair is the star of evening bright, 
A gem in heaven's blue zone ; 

And fair the moonlight's robe of white 
O'er earth's green surface thrown ; 

But Alpine snow, nor crystal stream, 

Can pure delight impart, 
Nor moon, nor evening planet's gleam, 

To match the guileless heart. 

For these material works of God 
Of Him memorials stand, 

And tell the Maker's power abroad, 
The wonders of his hand : 

But guileless truth and innocence, 
By God to men consigned, 

Reflect his moral excellence, 
An image of his mind. 

Bp. Mant. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 245 

SAINT MATTHEW'S DAY. 

Spetember 21. 

Collect. O Almighty God, who by thy bles- 
sed Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of 
custom, to be an apostle and evangelist; grant 
us grace to forsake all covetous desires, and inor- 
dinate love of riches, and to follow the same thy 
Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reign- 
eth with thee, world without end. Amen. 

HYMN. 

Prepare the feast ! the viands bring, 

Heap high the festal board ! 
The subject welcomes Israel's King ; 

The follower greets his Lord. 

But who is he, the host, whose care 

Provides the costly feast? 
And who are they assembled there 

Around the heavenly guest ? 

'T is Matthew, 't is the publican ; 

The favored host is he 
Who sat, a much despised man, 

Beside Tiberias' sea. 



246 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

And they, the guests assembled round, 
They boast no better name ; 

One in disgraceful union found. 
Allied to sin and shame. 

holy Jesus, and are these 
Associates meet for thee ? 

Is this the host thy soul to please, 
And this the company ? 

Cf Not to the righteous was I sent ; 
Not to the whole I cry ; 

1 call the sinner to repent ; 

The sick man's health am I. 

" For them my glory I resigned ; 

For them endure the grave ; 
I came the wandering sheep to find, 

The perishing to save." 

Shepherd of Israel ! Saviour dear ! 

Whose voice thy duteous sheep 
Safe in thy fold delighted hear, 

And to thy pasture keep ; 

Repentant, lo ! to thee we turn, 
To thee for health we pray ; 

Give us what thou reveal'st to learn, 
And what thou bidd'st obey. 

Bp. Mant. 






COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



ANOTHER, 



247 



Ye hermits blest, ye holy maids. 
The nearest heaven on earth, 
Who talk with God in shadowy glades, 

Free from rude care and mirth ; 
To whom some viewless teacher brings 
The secret lore of rural things, 
The moral of each fleeting cloud and gale, 
The whispers from above, that haunt the twilight 
vale ; — 

Say, when in pity ye have gazed 

On the wreathed smoke afar, 
That o'er some town, like mist upraised, 

Hung, hiding sun and star, 
Then, as ye turned your weary eye 
To the green earth and open sky, 
Were ye not fain to doubt how Faith could dwell 
Amid that dreary glare, in this world's citadel? 

But Love 's a flower that will not die 

For lack of leafy screen, 
And Christian Hope can cheer the eye 

That ne'er saw vernal green. 
Then be ye sure that Love can bless 
Even in this crowded wilderness, 
Where ever-moving myriads seem to say 
Go — thou art nought to us, nor we to thee — away ! 



248 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

There are in this loud stirring tide 

Of human care and crime, 
With whom the melodies abide 

Of the everlasting chime ; 
Who carry music in their heart 
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart. 
Plying their daily task with busier feet, 
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat. 

How sweet to them, in such brief rest 

As thronging cares afford, 
In thought to wander, fancy-blest, 

To where their gracious Lord, 
In vain, to win proud Pharisees, 
Spake, and was heard by fell disease — 
But not in vain, beside yon breezy lake, 
Bade the meek Publican his gainful seat forsake. 

At once he rose, and left his gold ; 

His treasure and his heart 
Transferred, where he shall safe behold 

Earth and her idols part ; 
While he beside his endless store 
Shall sit, and floods unceasing pour 
Of Christ's true riches o'er all time and space, 
First angel of his Church, first steward of his grace. 

Nor can ye not delight to think 

Where he vouchsafed to eat, 
How the pure Master did not shrink 

From touch of sinner's meat j 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 249 

What worldly hearts and hearts impure 
Went with him through the rich man's door ; 
That we might learn of him lost souls to love, 
And view his least and worst with hope to meet 
above. 

These gracious lines shed gospel light 

On Mammon's gloomiest cells, 
As on some city's cheerless night 

The tide of sunrise swells, 
Till tower, and dome, and bridge-way proud 
Are mantled with a golden cloud, 
And to wise hearts this certain hope is given, 
" No mist that man may raise, shall hide the eye 
of Heaven." 

And oh ! if even on Babel shine 

Such gleams of Paradise, 
Should not their peace be peace divine, 

Who day by day arise 
To look on clearer heavens, and scan 
The work of God untouched by man ? 
Shame on us, who about us Babel bear, 
And live in Paradise, as if God was not there ! 

Keble. 



250 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 

SAINT SIMON AND SAINT JUDE'S DAY. 

October 28. 

Collect. O Almighty God, who hast built 
thy Church upon the foundation of the apostles 
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the 
head corner stone ; grant us so to be joined to- 
gether in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that 
we may be made a holy temple acceptable unto 
thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

HYMN. 

As at the first, by two and two 
His herald saints the Saviour sent 

To soften hearts like morning dew, 
Where he to shine in mercy meant ; 

So evermore he deems his name 

Best honored and his way prepared, 

When watching by his altar-flame 
He sees his servants duly paired. 

He loves when age and youth are met, 
Fervent old age and youth serene, 

Their high and low in concord set 
For sacred song, joy's golden mean. 



COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 251 

He loves when some clear soaring mind 

Is drawn by mutual piety 
To simple souls and unrefined, 

Who in life's shadiest covert lie. 

Or if perchance a saddened heart 
That once was gay and felt the spring, 

Cons slowly o'er its altered part, 
In sorrow and remorse to sing, 

Thy gracious care will send that way 
Some spirit full of glee, yet taught 

To bear the sight of dull decay, 
And nurse it with all pitying thought ; 

Cheerful as soaring lark, and mild 
As evening blackbird's full-toned lay, 

When the relenting sun has smiled 
Bright through a whole December day. 

These are the tones to brace and cheer 

The lonely watcher of the fold, 
When nights are dark, and foemen near, 

When visions fade, and hearts grow cold. 

How timely then a comrade's song 
Comes floating on the mountain air, 

And bids thee yet be bold and strong — 
Fancy may die, but Faith is there. 

Keble. 



252 COLLECTS AND HYMNS. 



ANOTHER. 

Father, gracious Father, hear 
Faith's effectual fervent prayer ; 
Hear, and our petitions seal, 
Let us now the answer feel. 
Still our fellowship increase j 
Knit us in the bond of peace ; 
Join our new-born spirits, join 
Each to each, and all to thine. 

Build us in one body up, 
Called in one high calling's hope ; 
One the Spirit whom we claim, 
One the pure baptismal flame, 
One the faith, and common Lord, 
One the Father lives adored, 
Over, through, and in us all, 
God incomprehensible. 

Wesley. 






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